Never Forgotten
by Goddess-Isis-112
Summary: [REWRITE]With a devastating memory loss, Sakura returns to Konoha to piece together the remnants of her forgotten past. What she hadn't intended on finding was a lost love she had left behind. A KakaSaku fic.
1. Chapter One: Memories

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, never have, and never will. And if I did, I wouldn't be so broke! I don't own anything except for a few original characters, the clothes on my back and a few pennies, so there's no point in suing me.

**Author's Note:** This story loosely follows the actual storyline, but if truth be told...certain things have been drastically changed. In this story, Sasuke has already killed Itachi, and it's about 12 years into the future, which would make the members of Team 7 about 24 years old?

_As of Aug. 25, 2005:_ I'm still currently editing this story.

* * *

**Never Forgotten **  
By: Goddess-Isis-112 

**Chapter One: Memories**

It had been years since he last saw her.

Her image was forever imprinted in his mind as he idly thought of her, of the way she waved good-bye in her cheerful manner as she set off on a simple mission to escort a client back to the Country of the Wave. Kakashi hadn't worried so much about her safety back then; she had trained harder than he thought possible, and she had reached her goal as a Jounin as well as a teacher to a young group of ninjas who had recently graduated from the academy. Haruno Sakura exceeded all expectations, and then some, and he knew that it was one of the many things that had attracted him to her.

Hatake Kakashi sighed softly, letting the memories wash over him in a perpetual stream. He had doubted that she would be strong enough, persistent enough to reach the rank of Jounin. She proved him wrong, surprising him with a determination he had only seen in her other two teammates, and although she had been the last of the group, she was eventually promoted to the Jounin rank and had become a powerful Kunoichi for Konoha.

He had been one of the first to hear the good news…

* * *

Flashback 

"Kakashi-sensei!" she screeched in an abnormally high-pitched squeal, making his ears ring. She caught him off-guard, and he leapt up from his spot under a tree, quickly shoving 'Icha Icha Paradise' into his pocket. "I've done it! I've become a Jounin!" She jumped into his arms in excitement and he enveloped her in a tight embrace as he swung her around, both futilely trying to ignore the immediate reaction of the chemistry between them. Although unspoken of, the attraction had been there for a while, at least on Kakashi's part. He set her gently to her feet again, holding on slightly longer than he needed. A blush covered her soft features, and he passed it off as excitement for her promotion, not willing to believe that maybe, just maybe, she had feelings for him.

"I'm proud of you," he said simply, grinning beneath the mask that covered most of his face. Her eyes shone with emotion as she looked up at him, her fingers slightly caressing his covered cheek.

"I couldn't have done it without your help and all the training that you've put us through-"

"It was your own determination that got you through," he interrupted, somehow finding it hard to tear his uncovered eye away from her emerald gaze. Why was he finding it difficult to breathe all of a sudden? They stared at each other a while longer before Sakura let out a nervous giggle, running her hand nervously through her pink tresses.

"I have something to tell you, sensei." She pulled away, her cheeks aflame, and she turned around so that she wouldn't have to face him as she spoke. Her enthusiasm quickly turned to that of shyness, and Kakashi felt himself grow tense at the alteration in her demeanor.

"What is it?" He was secretly startled at the immediate change in the tone of his voice. Somehow, it had become softer, gentler when he spoke to her, and although he knew why, he wasn't so sure if he was ready to exactly accept what he was feeling…

"I think…I-I think…" She paused slightly, as if unsure whether to go on.

"Hm?" She turned abruptly to look toward her confused sensei, and although her face was completely red, a resolute expression covered her face.

"There's something that I'd been hiding from you for a while," she began, "and I figured that I might as well say it now before I start my missions as a Jounin. I don't want to live with the regret of not being able to tell you when I had the chance."

"Sakura, you're speaking in cryptic riddles," he replied, chuckling uncertainly, unable to stop the fluttering feeling building in his chest. What was she doing to him?

"I-I love you." Of everything he had been expecting, it definitely wasn't that, and he was frozen in his spot, unable to move, not knowing how exactly he should reply. 'She loves me?' The phrase repeated over and over in his head, as he stared at her beautiful face, trying to comprehend what exactly had just happened. The mask covering his face felt even more like a protective cover when he felt his cheeks flush at her confession, but he wanted to strip it away, to face her with the same type of vulnerability that she was probably feeling at that moment. But her words rendered him speechless, and he had no idea what to do.

She took his stunned silence and lack of movement for rejection, and she quickly turned around. "I know it's foolish of me," she began to babble, "but after all these years together, I couldn't help but admire you. It hasn't been until recently that I'd realized that my admiration had grown into something more, but I was too blinded with my attraction to Sasuke to fully understand what had happened. I'd fallen in love with you without recognizing what I was feeling, and I just passed it off as an upset stomach, because every time I was near you, my stomach would react, making me feel all funny. Haha, isn't that amusing? You give me stomachaches! Haha, and I haven't even seen what you really look like yet, oh, not t-that that matters really. It doesn't really change how I feel." He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't actually seen her face turn even more red than it was. She was stammering at an uncontrollable rate, but he didn't know exactly how to stop her. "Uhm…I don't know why I'm saying all this. Haha! I guess I just expected much more after disclosing my feelings, but obviously you don't feel the same way, so I should go now and stop embarrassing myself any further-"

He gulped, his throat dry. Not wanting to mess up the opportunity that had presented itself before him, he thought carefully before he replied.

"Sakura." She paused as he finally spoke, but she looked away, unable to meet his gaze, knowing that he would see the glassiness of her eyes as she tried to conceal her tears.

"You don't have to make me feel better, sensei," she continued in an uneven tone, desperately trying to control her pain. "I'm perfectly fine, don't worry about me-"

"Sakura," he repeated, this time moving closer to her, and with one arm extended, he took her hand in his. She started at the contact, snapping her head too look at him, and their eyes locked. "I don't know exactly what I'm feeling, but we could give this a try."

"Really, sensei…?" she whispered in disbelief, and he chuckled again, shaking his head at her befuddled expression.

"You can start by calling me Kakashi," he said with a grin. "You're no longer my subordinate…You haven't been for a while."

"Kakashi," she muttered, wiping her tears away with the back of her free hand. "I-I don't know what to say-." At that moment, Kakashi gave in and wrapped his arms around her once more, relishing in the perfection he felt with her there.

"There's no need to say anything," he replied simply, lightly nudging her nose with his covered one. "Sometimes words are inadequate at times like these." With a nod of agreement, she smiled, and he lowered himself back onto the grass, pulling her along with him, and she settled against him in a comfortable position, as if she had always known all along how to do so. They sat together in blissful silence and watched the sky change from a warm orange to a gentle lavender as the sun began to dip below the horizon.

"How do you think the boys will react to this?" she inquired, and Kakashi shrugged, concentrating on their entwined fingers.

"They'll accept it," he said. "Not quietly, but they'll accept it."

End Flashback

* * *

He gazed upon her name on the memorial, and with steady fingers, he lightly traced over it. 

_Haruno Sakura._

"I miss you," he whispered before he straightened his shoulders and cleared his throat. "It's been a while, hasn't it, Sasuke-kun?" He turned and faced the surprised Uchiha survivor.

"You knew I was here?" Sasuke reached over and placed a pile of cherry blossoms on the memorial, his fingers following Kakashi's previous path and tracing over her name.

"Yeah."

"It's been exactly five years today," Sasuke said quietly. "These were in bloom, and I thought that she might've liked them."

"She would have," Kakashi answered casually, looking over the bouquet that rested on top of the memorial. The tension between the two men grew as an uncomfortable silence loomed over them.

"Listen, sensei," Sasuke began slowly, as if unsure of his words.

"If you're going to talk about when…when I found you and S-Sakura, I don't want to hear it," Kakashi shot out, losing his usually cool demeanor.

"I wanted to explain-"

"I don't want to talk about it," Kakashi snapped, breathing steadily to control his temper.

"You've avoided talking about it since it happened, and you're still angry with me," Sasuke growled back. "I want to clear things-"

"Not today," Kakashi replied in an even tone. "I just want to remember her. I don't want to think about it, not like this." He sighed, tracing his trembling fingers once more over her name. "Why is my forgiveness so important to you now?"

"My wedding to Naoko is in a few months," Sasuke answered softly. "I invited you to the wedding, but you've never answered, and…I wanted the remaining members of Team 7 to be there. As two of my Best Men." He paused, waiting for Kakashi's answer, but the older Jounin did nothing but stare at Sakura's name. Sasuke sighed, thinking that he wasn't going to get an answer, and just as he turned to leave, Kakashi looked at him.

"I'll think about it." Without another word, Kakashi turned his gaze back to Sakura's name, every detail of the carved characters emblazoned into his memory. Sasuke felt his lips turn up into a tiny smile, and he continued on his way back to the town.

The temporary peace that had just settled between the two was suddenly interrupted as the town's loudest, show-offy ninja came crashing into the grassy clearing, calling out to the both of them.

"HEY!" he screamed insanely, his face red with excitement. "KAKASHI-SENSEI! SASUKE!"

"What's with you, idiot!" Sasuke scowled in irritation.

"She's back, she's back, she's back!" Naruto sang, dancing around with his arms flailing above his head. Kakashi's heart dropped, and he snapped his head to stare intensely at Naruto, but he dared not give into the hope that Naruto's words brought him.

"What do you mean!" Kakashi demanded urgently. "Who's back?"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried out in jubilation. "Sakura-chan's back!"

"Impossible!" Kakashi exclaimed, feeling as if his senses had decided flee from him at that precise moment. His breathing had suddenly became quite laborious. "She's…gone. Her name's on the memorial-"

"They never found her body, right?" Naruto countered. "They never found her body when everyone looked for her! But she's back, she's back, she's back! I saw her with my own eyes!"

"But how-"

"You shouldn't worry so much about that part, sensei!" Naruto laughed joyfully, grabbing an arm from each of the two men standing in front of him as he dragged them into the direction of the town. "She's back, and Tsunade-sama is talking to her right now to find out what happened! That's all that matters-" He turned to smile goofily at his former sensei, but in a puff of white smoke, Kakashi was gone, already ahead of the two.

"I hate when he does that," Naruto said with no conviction as he danced his way back to the town with Sasuke trailing after him.

Kakashi fled as fast as his legs could carry him, his heart hammering within his chest, forcing him to go faster than he thought possible, and he reached Hokage-sama's office in a matter of minutes. But, as he found himself just outside of the doors that blocked his way, he paused, his logical mind trying to make sense of it all. However, he found that he couldn't possibly think his way to a reasonable answer as to what could have happened to have severed Sakura out of his life for five years. He knew that the only solution was to walk through the door and find out the truth. Without another hesitation, he pushed the door out of his way and burst through, his eye first landing on a mildly surprised Tsunade-sama, then on a woman sitting in a chair in front of the 5th Hokage, her back to Kakashi.

He inhaled sharply as his mind slowly registered the long, lustrous pink hair of the woman sitting a mere twenty feet away from him, but before he could say another word, Naruto and Sasuke crashed noisily into the room behind him, insults flying between the two of them, but they stopped immediately when the mysterious woman turned in her chair to stare at them with her large green eyes, and she swept pink tresses away from her telltale wide forehead to take a better look at the three who had interrupted her quiet meeting with Tsunade-sama.

Kakashi didn't know how it was possible for her to grow even more lovely than he remembered, but in the time that they had been separated, she had blossomed into a magnificent beauty, the curves of her face chiseled to perfection with grace and age. His chest tightened sharply as his heart jumped erratically with indescribable joy at the sight of her. He felt tears prickle his eyelashes, and he tried desperately to control his emotions before he did anything foolish, but he wanted nothing more than to rush to her and take her in his arms, just to hold her once again.

"**SAKURA-CHAN!**" Naruto greeted, before Sasuke knocked him on the side of his head, muttering, "Shut up, idiot!" beneath his breath, but both froze as they watched Kakashi move toward her, his hand reaching out to her as if she were a misty vision about to disappear at any given moment.

"Sakura?" Kakashi's voice cracked as he spoke her name, and he stepped forward to her, his excitement clearly building. Her brow wrinkled in confusion as she gave him a weak smile. Her eyes were wide with childlike innocence, and when she spoke, Kakashi stopped, his back gone rigid, feeling as if he had suddenly been dropped into a pool of freezing water.

"Who are you all?"

TBC…


	2. Chapter Two: A Familiar Face

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own Naruto!

**Author's Notes:** My many thanks to the people who've reviewed! This chapter is dedicated to you guys 'cause you guys are great!

**Never Forgotten **  
By: Goddess-Isis-112

"Sakura?" Kakashi's voice cracked as he spoke her name, and he stepped forward to her, his excitement clearly building. Her brow wrinkled in confusion as she gave him a weak smile. Her eyes were wide with childlike innocence, and when she spoke, Kakashi paused, feeling as if he had suddenly been dropped into a pool of freezing water.

"Who are you all?"

Chapter Two: A Familiar Face

"Gomen nasai," Sakura apologized, studying the man before her whose mysterious face lay beneath his mask and headband protector. His one exposed eye widened with disbelief at her words, and he took a step away from her, as if her words had slapped him. "I'm not sure if we've met before…?" she continued cautiously, and with a heaving sigh he broke his stare, his pain so evident and tangible that her heart lurched with regret at her words. His grief was so immense that it became contagious, and she bit back a sob, her intuition telling her to run to the man who stood before her and fling herself into his arms to stop the swelling of his misery. She forced herself to remain where she was, just as the loud one with the wild blond hair screamed in frustration.

"SAKURA-CHAN!" he cried out. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE HAVEN'T MET BEFORE!" He flung himself over to kneel by her side as she yelped in surprise, jumping out of her chair with quick reflexes. The blond had no inhibitions about keeping his feelings at bay, and he screeched loudly, making him seem much younger than he appeared, although she was sure he was nearly the same age as she was.

"I don't know you!" she insisted fervently, looking helplessly at Tsunade-sama, who sat still, watching the scene unfold before her.

"How can you say that?" The rowdy ninja was close to tears as he instinctively captured one her hands in his own, gripping onto her rather tightly, but she was too frightened to protest. "Sakura-chan, after all that we've shared together, how could you forget-"

"Listen," she began slowly, her voice quavering. "I'm telling you the truth. I don't believe I've seen any of you before-" The man with the mysterious face looked up at her once more, and when her gaze found his, she felt the slick glide of wet tears fall from her eyes down her cheeks. Why was it that this man could evoke so much emotion from her in the small amount of time that he had been in the room? They stared silently at each other, her heart protesting inanely in her chest with unpredictable beats. "I feel," she heard herself saying, though she had no recollection of ever opening her mouth, "that I should know you, especially you," she gestured to the man with the covered face, "but I-I…I don't…I-I really don't recall-"

"Are you sure about that?" The silent, black-haired ninja in the back finally spoke, advancing a few feet closer to where she stood. She felt her cheeks flush at the sight of him; he was tall and lean with a wonderful voice, but it was his dark eyes that called to her, drew her attention to him. The obsidian orbs locked onto her jade ones, and she drew in her breath sharply, feeling as if he were trying to pierce deep into her soul. He was breathtaking to say the least, causing her heart to tumble about in her chest.

"Who are you?" she blurted out, unable to do anything else.

"You really don't remember me?" He narrowed his eyes, studying her intensely, watching as her cheeks grew into a deeper shade of crimson as she shook her head.

"Gomen," she said, taking her eyes off of him, knowing that if she stared at him any longer, she'd burst into a fit of girlish giggles which would be unbecoming of her age and inappropriate for the situation at hand. She clumsily wiped her tears away to distract herself from the conflicting emotions raging within her.

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi addressed Tsunade, clearly furious at the attraction that Sakura had shown toward Sasuke, "what happened? Why can she not remember us?" Tsunade sighed, fiddling with a poker chip she kept on her desk to abate her need for gambling (though it never really helped). She did not want to break the news to Kakashi about Sakura's condition, especially with a shinobi from the Hidden Cloud Village watching on, but she knew Kakashi had to be informed of what had come to pass. She stared hard at the top of her desk, knowing that the truth would again most likely break his slowly mending heart.

"She doesn't belong here." A masculine voice interrupted from the end of the room before Tsunade could speak, drawing their attention to a man of medium build. He looked much like Sasuke, with the exception of his dark brown hair and piercing oceanic eyes. He wore simple, light-colored robes, and he walked over to Sakura, placing a protective arm around her.

"Who the hell…!" Kakashi growled out, a kunai immediately in his hand as he moved to defend Sakura, but Tsunade placed herself strategically between the couple and Kakashi, preventing his attack mere inches from the man's neck.

"Kakashi, no," Tsunade spoke, and he relaxed…barely. She sighed, placing her hand on top of his, bringing down his kunai. "You mustn't attack Sakura's escort from the Hidden Cloud Village."

"No offense, Hokage-sama, but what the hell is going on!" Kakashi exploded, running his gloved hand angrily through his hair. "What the hell does the Hidden Cloud Village have to do with anything-"

"The Hidden Cloud Village has been Sakura's home for the past five years," Tsunade-sama answered. "It's her story to tell…" Her voice trailed off as she glanced at the couple behind her, the Sasuke-look-alike calming the pink-haired woman, the both of them standing much too close together for Kakashi's comfort.

"Get away from her," he spat out, his eye narrowed dangerously. The pain of losing her to death was suddenly brought forth a thousand-fold at seeing Sakura alive with another man, and Kakashi was on the verge of committing murder.

"A man has a right to support his fiancée," the other man shot out, holding Sakura much closer to his side.

"What…" Kakashi's voice had gone eerily quiet with rage, and by habit, his hand immediately went to his headband protector, lifting it up as if ready to do battle. His eye opened, revealing the Sharingan that had lay hidden beneath it, and suddenly, Sakura gasped, closing her eyes as a vision began to stream into her mind. Her mind cut off the concerned babble that had fled from her fiancé's mouth as she fell to her knees by the intensity of the sting inside her head, and she concentrated solely on the dormant memory that had suddenly come back to life.

* * *

_"S-Sakura, stop!" Kakashi laughed as she tickled him relentlessly. They tumbled onto his couch after stumbling into his apartment, having spent the entire evening out, openly declaring their relationship to the rest of the village by eating dinner together at Ichiraku and walking down the streets hand-in-hand. Despite the many murmurings and whispers that had floated around them, Sakura was determined to make everyone accept their newly found romance, and Kakashi's mood had been somewhat dismal when they arrived back at his apartment. Sakura needed to lighten the atmosphere around them, forcing the mirth back into his tone by attacking him with tickling fingers. Although he quickly captured her hands in his, she grinned happily, laying her head on his shoulder, tucking her head just beneath his chin._

_"Gomen," she whispered. "I just wanted to hear you laugh again. Those villagers haven't the faintest idea of what they're talking about, Kakashi. Who cares if they don't exactly approve of what's happening between us?"_

_"I don't want to be the ruin of your reputation, Sakura," he said softly. "I can handle whatever they say about me, but if ever they start verbally attacking you…" His voice drifted off, and he grew pensive, staring off into space._

_"Kakashi," she sighed, but he said nothing in reply, lost in his thoughts. She shifted slightly, her hands moving to his headband protector, but before she could lift it, he paused her movement. "Please," she implored, "don't hide behind your mask with me when we're like this. I want to see you." She smirked slightly. "Especially since you ate so fast at dinner that I missed out again." He grinned beneath his mask, removing his hand from hers as she lifted his headband protector off his head, her fingers tingling with excitement as they brushed against his rather silky hair. Her hands made their way to his mask, and they gazed deeply into each others eyes, both their hearts bursting with a passion neither had ever felt before. She slowly began to lower his mask from his face- _

* * *

"SAKURA!" A violent shaking of her shoulders snapped her out of her unbidden memory, and alarmed, her head jerked right, then left, seeing a swarm of concerned faces hovering above her. She quickly closed her eyes tightly, trying to hold on to the swiftly vanishing wisps of images that sputtered like a dying flame left in the wind.

"No!" she cried out, pulling away from the many arms that tried to hold onto her, and she grabbed her head in frustration, coaxing her mind to give her the vision again, but it was rapidly fading, and all she could see behind her closed lids was darkness. Sobbing, she opened her eyes, glaring angrily at the people around her, and she slowly drew herself up onto unsteady feet.

"What happened, Sakura?" her fiancé, Kazuki, questioned urgently, clutching her in his arms as if she were a frightened child, but she angrily pushed him away.

"I saw something, Kazuki," she said, breathing heavily, searching the room frantically until her eyes landed on Kakashi. "You…you…" She shut her eyes desperately, but the images were completely erased, hiding within the depths of her mind's many layers.

"What did you see, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, his voice calm and gentle, the former rage no longer evident in his tone.

"I…it's gone," she sighed heavily in defeat. "For one second, it was there, b-but…" Kazuki, unfazed by her sudden tantrum, took her in his arms again, ignoring the death glares that Kakashi shot in his direction.

"Shh, you need rest," he advised, before looking to Tsunade-sama. "Give her some time before you ask her to reveal her story to _them_," he said, spitting out the last word like a disease. "She's not ready yet." Sakura paid no heed to his words, keeping her eyes fixed on Kakashi, and she furrowed her brows, struggling with her mind, but it remained sealed, deflecting her attempts to break open its secrets.

"Very well," Tsunade agreed, before turning to Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto. "I'll escort them personally to her former home, as no one lives there now. I'll summon you three when the time comes." They knew it was more of an order than a suggestion, and the three acquiesced without verbal complaint.

Kakashi trained his eye on Sakura as she walked out of the room with Kazuki and Tsunade, and restrained the massive longing within his crying soul to chase after them. The helplessness he felt when watching Sakura walk away, still very much alive, tore through the protective wall he had built around his heart over the past five years, ripping his heart's tender flesh into a bloody pulp of mangled tissue.

It was then that he realized that death was much more benevolent.

TBC…

Please review!


	3. Chapter Three: A Photograph

**Disclaimer: **I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I don't own Naruto!

**Author's Notes:** Once again, a big thank-you to my patient readers I'll definitely try to update more frequently.

**Never Forgotten **  
By: Goddess-Isis-112

Kakashi trained his eye on Sakura as she walked out of the room with Kazuki and Tsunade, and restrained the massive longing within his crying soul to chase after them. The helplessness he felt when watching Sakura walk away, still very much alive, tore through the protective wall he had built around his heart over the past five years, ripping his heart's tender flesh into a bloody pulp of mangled tissue.

It was then that he realized that death was much more benevolent.

* * *

Chapter Three: A Photograph

Kazuki and Tsunade conversed in friendly tones in the living room on the bottom floor of the house that had once belonged to the Haruno family. Their voices grew more distant as Sakura wandered up the creaking staircase, and somehow she found herself moving into a room at the end of the 2nd story hall. When an odd sort of sensation crept into her, she knew immediately that she had found her former bedroom, even though no memory of it arose in her mind. She gazed around at the neglected walls, dust clinging to nearly everything in sight. Walking to the windows, she pulled back the worn drapes, and the afternoon rays entered the lonely room for the first time in years, and she turned around to observe the room again, hoping that a little light would change the decrepit atmosphere.

A metallic reflection nearly blinded her, and squinting, she found the source in the form of a leather-bound hardcover book with a gilded lock embedded into the cover. She walked toward the desk, dusting the tome with the quick swipes of her hand, and upon lifting it into her arms, she discovered that the lock was broken, allowing her easy access to whatever lay inside. She turned to the first page as she sat down at the desk, a child-like version of her cursive meeting her shocked eyes as she looked over the first page. Flipping through the rest of the pages with excitement, she realized that this was her diary from long ago, and by the look of it, it was definitely one that she had updated every single day with devotion. She shifted back to the first page, enthusiastic to see her own personal recorded history of her past.

* * *

June 1

Dear Diary,

I have finally found a boy to like! Sasuke-kun is SO cute, and he's going to be such a great ninja when he grows up! He has really dark hair! Although he's got long bangs that cover his eyes sometimes, the back is always up in spikes, and when the light hits his head at the right angle, you can see that his hair is really a dark blue! His eyes are dark like his hair, and when he looks my way, I feel like my heart is going to stop beating! He's strong, but really quiet, and now, it will be my goal to get him to like me back! I can't wait to tell everyone, especially my best friend Ino-chan!

Hugs,

Sakura

* * *

A sad smile found its way onto her lips, and she assumed by the tone of the entry, that "Sasuke-kun" had been her first crush.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered outloud, her hand tracing softly over his carefully inscribed name on the page as if touching the faded ink would bring back memories of her childhood.

"Are you starting to remember?" A voice called out to her, startling her out of her reverie, and she slammed the book shut as she jerked her eyes to the doorway where Tsuande and Kazuki stood.

"No, I haven't, Tsunade-sama," Sakura admitted honestly as they walked into the room, and Kazuki reached out to touch the book in her hands, but she pulled it back, shaking her head. "I'd like to read this to myself first, Kazuki-kun." She flipped the pages between her fingers again, looking down at the blur of words. "I've just read the first entry, and apparently it was my diary from when I was still here-" As she spoke, a picture tumbled out from the pages, swaying from side to side as it drifted to the floor, and she bent down to pick it up. Flipping it over, her eyes grew wide as she gawked at the image imprinted on it.

It was a close-up of two teenagers, a boy with dark-blue highlighted hair and a girl with pastel pink hair, both of whom were caught off-guard in mid-embrace, the redness of their cheeks displaying their embarrassment as they gaped at the photographer that had taken them by surprise.

"That's me," Sakura whispered in awe, immediately recognizing herself, and as she studied the other figure she let out tiny gasp. "T-that's t-that guy, the one from your office, Hokage-sama!"

"Uchiha Sasuke," Tsunade confirmed with a nod.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura said quietly, letting his name roll of her tongue like sweet honey. "The first diary entry mentioned him…"

"Can I have a look at the photo?" Sakura looked up at Kazuki, handing him the snapshot, and as he cradled it in his hands, Sakura scrutinized him with narrowed eyes.

"You look like him, a little bit," she remarked, and he lifted an eyebrow at her before staring at the picture with dissatisfaction.

"Not exactly," he stated firmly, handing back the photo.

"Well, besides your blue eyes and brown hair, you really do," Sakura teased, smiling at him, and he huffed out his chest indignantly before crossing his arms in mock anger, but when Sakura gently grabbed his hand in hers, his expression softened, and he returned her smile with a small grin of his own. However, when he looked at Tsuande, his smile vaguely faded, and his eyes became troubled.

"Tsunade-sama," he began, "what exactly was Sakura's relationship with this Uchiha-san? From this picture and from his reaction today, it seemed, well, as if they were…lovers." The insecurity creased his brow with lines as he gripped tightly to Sakura's hand, and Tsunade-sama smiled gently at the couple.

"You needn't worry, Kazuki-kun," she replied. "What had happened between Sasuke and Sakura ended a bit before her memory had been tampered with. If it would reassure you, Sasuke is set out to marry his fiancée Kinomoto Naoko in a few short months." Kazuki let out a small sigh of relief and relaxed physically, his shoulders drooping a bit as he let go of the tension in his back.

"So there was no one before Sakura was…?" He let the sentence fade out, and much to his disbelief, Tsunade-sama stiffened considerably.

"It would be a lie if I said there wasn't," she answered, and Kazuki paled, his grip on Sakura's hand tightening. Sakura winced slightly as she wiggled her fingers free from his grasp, attempting to encourage the blood flow. However, the Hokage's words chilled her slightly, and she shuddered.

"Who?" Sakura asked and her voice wavered, almost as if scared to hear the answer. "Could it have been one of the men who had burst into the room-" Tsunade nodded briefly, cutting Sakura off from the rest of her sentence.

"Hatake Kakashi," Tsunade replied softly. "Kakashi-sensei was your…fiancé, Sakura-san. You two were to be married as soon as you had completed your mission." She paused, not wanting to reveal too much too soon, and she walked toward the window to gaze outside to the bustling street below as her words slowly began to sink.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Kazuki repeated. "Which one was he?"

"He doesn't particularly like to reveal his face, so he conceals it beneath a mask of black cloth," Tsunade responded slowly, and anger seeped into Kazuki's tense face, contorting his handsome features into that of rage.

"The man who tried to attack me is Kakashi!" he yelled loudly. "But he's much too old for Sakura-"

"Love knows no bounds, Kazuki-san," Tsunade stated, turning back to look at the couple before focusing her gaze solely on Sakura. The young woman seemed to have been shocked into silence as her eyes were round and large, her mouth forming words but no sound fell from her lips. "I know this news is rather alarming, and it does put you in a sort of bind, Sakura-san." The Hokage smiled mournfully, her eyes cheerless. "Kakashi-sensei hadn't looked at any other since your disappearance. Despite his rather casual demeanor, he took the news the hardest out of the rest of your team, and although he seems to be nonchalant in most matters, he visits the memorial religiously everyday."

"Memorial?" Sakura choked out, finally able to control her vocal chords.

"The memorial which this town holds dear," Tsunade explained. "It's a stone with names carved on it, the names of the village's heroes, those who have been killed in action-"

"And my name is on there?"

"Yes." Sakura shuddered again at the news, and she felt tears building as her chest tightened. She breathed heavily, trying to contain her sobs, but when Kazuki began to rub his hand in circular motion across her back, the tears sprung forth, and Sakura jumped from her seat away from him.

"B-but none of this makes any kind of sense!" she cried out, thrusting her fists to her eyes to angrily rub her tears away. "I'm _not_ a kunoichi! I don't know anything about fighting or training or anything of the sort! I've only lived in the Country of Lightning's Hidden Village of the Cloud, and although I can't seem to remember anything save for the last five years, my being a ninja makes absolutely no sense-" The sound of whirling shuriken immediately caught her ear and she broke off from her speech, and in a wave of sudden déjà vu, she raised her hand in time to catch two shuriken, twirling them casually on her fingers. Sakura let out a gasp, matching that of Kazuki's, and they stared at each other for a few silent moments, Kazuki battling with the fact that maybe he didn't know Sakura as well as he had thought.

"If that doesn't prove your training, I don't know what does," Tsunade declared, her eyes narrowing as she watched the younger woman gape at the weapons she had prevented from slashing into her neck. "You are part of the Kunoichi of Konoha, and you are a Jounin. You trained with Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto under Kakashi-sensei, and you had faithfully served your village for most of your life. It is a reality you must accept even if you do not remember it. To deny your past is to deny part of yourself, Sakura-san. And to rediscover your past is why you came back, is it not?"

"Yes," Sakura whispered in defeat, and tiredly, she removed the pack she had carried on her back, and placing it on the bed, she dug through its contents to pull out a headback protector, the Konoha symbol shining proudly in the fading light. "When I'd found this in the bottom of my trunk carefully folded inside a silken scarf, I had asked Kazuki about it. I had no idea why I had a headband protector, especially one from Konoha."

"So what exactly happened, Sakura?" Tsunade inquired gently. "Do you remember of how you came to live at the Country of the Cloud?" After a moment of silence, Sakura nodded slowly.

"The only thing that I remember was that I had awoken one regular day to find myself in a hospital bed," Sakura began, her head bowed slightly as she searched within her memories. "It wasn't much of a glorious morning, but then again, in the Hidden Cloud Village, there are few days in which the sunlight truly penetrates through in the early mornings. Of course, I was frightened, not knowing why I was being hospitalized, and when a nurse finally came by to check up on me, she was more than pleased to find that I had at long last woken up. I had asked her of what had happened to me, and although she said that the doctors didn't know the details of the situation, they knew that by looking at my injuries, I had been attacked and rather viciously, too.

"Then the nurse began to ask me questions about my background and familial relations, and I realized for the first time that I couldn't remember anything besides my name. I panicked and became rather hysterical. I didn't know if my family was worried about me or even if I had family at all. That's when Kazuki walked into the ward, carrying a bouquet of fresh flowers, and at first glance, I knew he was familiar somehow, but I couldn't place him, and that was when the nurse informed me that Kazuki was the one who had brought me to the hospital in the first place."

"I had to calm her down before she could do anything to hurt herself any further," Kazuki continued when Sakura paused to take a breath, and although she was considerably grateful that she was interrupted, her expression was dark at bringing back unwanted memories. "Sakura looked at me as I walked into the ward, and she jumped out of her bed and into my arms, begging for an answer as to who she was. I couldn't say anything at that moment, so I just tried to comfort her and get her to calm down, and she did eventually, crying herself to sleep. I didn't tell her of what happened except that she had been attacked." He looked away guiltily. "I hadn't thought to tell her of how I really found her until she discovered her old headband protector."

"But Sakura said that the nurse had told her that you had brought her to the hospital," Tsunade pointed out. "How exactly did you find her?"

"I'm also a shinobi for the Hidden Cloud Village, and I was returning from a mission that had sent me to the Country of the Wave," Kazuki answered. "On my way back home, I stumbled upon Sakura lying on the ground in a puddle of water, and I realized that she had probably crossed a river that was a several yards away. Her clothes were soaked in her blood, and she was hardly breathing. I knew that if I didn't do anything, she would die, and I couldn't allow that to happen."

"But you ought to have noticed her headband protector," Tsunade cut in. "Why did you not try to contact our village-"

"She was wearing no headband protector when I found her," he argued, flushing slightly with emotion. "If I'd known where she was from, I would have taken her back to Konoha!"

"How is that possible she has it now if she hadn't had it when you first came upon her?" Tsunade narrowed her eyes, her suspicion steadily creeping into her system. "She was on a mission, and she wouldn't have taken her headband protector off without reason to-"

"Like I said, I do not know, Hokage-sama," he declared, though Tsunade had a sneaking suspicion that Kazuki wasn't telling her the entire truth. Sakura looked back and forth between her fiancé and Tsunade, the tension rising and thickening around them.

"Let's speak of something else, please, Hokage-sama," Sakura whispered quietly. "Please." She looked out the window to see the slowly sinking sun beginning its decent beneath the horizon. "It is my first night back-" She cut herself off as if suddenly startled, and she turned urgently to the elder woman. "You said this house once belonged to my family, but where are they now?" Tsunade, caught off-guard by the sudden changing of subjects, was unable to hide the sadness that immediately seeped into her gaze, and she turned away, incapable of delivering the news face to face.

"Your parents were murdered, even before that fateful day you left for your last mission," Tsunade informed slowly, glancing quickly at Sakura only to catch the glimpse of horror on the younger woman's face.

"W-what exactly happened?" Sakura asked, her voice quavering with shock, but Tsunade shook her head silently, her eyes darting over to Kazuki before landing on Sakura once again.

"I cannot risk revealing a few of Konoha's secrets with foreign shinobi in our presence. Gomen nasai." An awkward silence fell on the trio, and after a few minutes, Tsunade turned to leave. "I must get back to my office. There are still quite a few files that I must go over before I retire to bed. Please, Sakura-san, come by my office tomorrow morning. There are still many things that we have not yet spoken of. " With that, Tsunade walked out of the room, and before another word was spoken, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke just outside the door.

The tension in the room left along with her departure, and Kazuki collapsed on the bed with one huge sigh. "What a creepy woman," he muttered, closing his eyes as he folded his hands beneath his head.

"No, not really," Sakura defended, though not forcefully. "She's just concerned." She walked back to her desk and sat down, flipping through her diary once more. Almost as if it were calling to her, she drew out the picture of Sasuke and herself caught in an embrace, and she studied it intensely, as if gazing at the picture would bring back the memories she so desperately wanted. She traced over the image of her younger self before her fingertips ran over the image of Uchiha Sasuke, and she blushed, remembering her reaction to him earlier that day. She was attracted to him without any doubt, and it was no mystery that she was probably so attached to Kazuki because physically, he reminded her so much of Sasuke. _Was her sudden attraction to Kazuki when they had first met a sign of her mind trying to grasp onto the past?_ she thought to herself. She knew it was a possibility that swayed more into the territory of fact, and gazing at the picture once more did nothing but confirm her theories. _They both look way too similar,_ Sakura sighed inwardly.

"Staring at that picture again, are you?" Kazuki called from the bed, one of his eyes opened to observe her, and Sakura couldn't help but notice the twinge of jealousy in his voice. He tried to appear nonchalant, though her fascination with Uchiha Sasuke was something he felt he should worry about. He had worked so hard for their relationship to work, and he had given her all he had to prove how much he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He groaned inwardly, knowing that if she did begin to remember her former life, their relationship would enter a more weighty test. Looking at her now, he couldn't ignore the tell-tale blush that covered her cheeks when she gazed at the old snapshot, and he pulled his lips into a frown.

"Maybe looking at it will jolt a memory out of me," she commented lightly before she sighed and left her desk to lie next to Kazuki on the bed. She curled against his body as his arms went around her, and he planted a gentle kiss on the crown of her head. "I know you're worried, Kazuki," she continued, and he tightened his arms around her.

"I am," he admitted. "Didn't you hear Tsunade-sama? You already had a fiancé even before you left this village. Hatake Kakashi, she said." He gulped, attempting to steady his voice. "With your memories, certain old feelings might also arise-"

"I'm not going to just leave you," Sakura sputtered out, alarmed. "Is that what you think?"

"I'm afraid it might happen," Kazuki grumbled, and Sakura lifted her hand, stroking his cheek as his eyes automatically shut at her touch.

"We've been through so much together, Kazuki-kun," she whispered. "I'm not about to throw away what we have."

"I don't want to lose you, Sakura," he confessed. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Kazuki-kun," she murmured back, and although they shared a kiss only a second later, Sakura couldn't help but question whether or not she had done the same thing with Uchiha Sasuke only a few years back, and as the guilt slammed into her conscience, she shut her eyes tightly and clung to Kazuki, devouring his lips with ignited fervor, trying to do anything but think of the man with the piercing black eyes and midnight blue hair, the man who had haunted her thoughts the moment she had set her eyes on him in Tsunade-sama's office.

Depsite her frenzied efforts, Sakura could not dispel Sasuke from her mind, even when Kazuki began to quietly strip away her clothes.

TBC…


	4. Chapter Four: Deja Vu

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own Naruto.

**Author's Note:** Once again, a big thank you to my readers, especially those who've been more than enthusiastic in encouraging me to continue with this fic. This chapter has a few changes...especially with the implied relationship between Ino and Shikamaru. In the original version that I had posted previously, I had made it quite clear that Ino and Shikamaru were married, but with this second edit, I've made their relationship more ambiguous.

**Never Forgotten **  
By: Goddess-Isis-112

* * *

Despite her frenzied efforts, Sakura could not dispel Sasuke from her mind, even when Kazuki began to quietly strip away her clothes.

* * *

Chapter Four: Déjà Vu

Tsunade gazed up at the stone carvings of the former Hokages, and she frowned slightly at the latest addition of her face. The sculptors were still there, trying their best to 'capture her youthful essence,' as she had put it, since they had failed in doing so the first few times around. "Make sure you correct that line right there by the left eye!" she called out to the men. "I don't have wrinkles there!"

Mornings never really put her in a good mood, but accepting the title of Hokage meant getting up at the crack of dawn, even when she wanted to sleep in. She yawned loudly, waving her hand over her mouth as she did so before moving her fingers over her eyes to wipe away the yawn-induced tears that subsequently followed. It was the 7th yawn in the past five minutes, and she strongly debated whether or not to go back to bed as she stretched out her arms above her head, her tired eyes following the men high above on the rock. Her left hand slipped into her pocket, finding another poker chip there, and she pulled it out, twiddling it between her fingers as she sighed. Being Hokage also meant spending less time on one of her favorite activities, and she strongly wished that she could just take one day off to gamble just a tiny bit.

As her thoughts roamed over to her poker days, a bout of smoke appeared behind her, and she turned around smirking. "Mornin', Kakashi-kun," she greeted even before the smoke cleared away to reveal the Jounin.

"Good morning, Hokage-sama," he replied with the slight bow of his head.

"It's rather early, don't you think?" she questioned with one eyebrow raised, and he merely shrugged.

"I couldn't exactly sleep much last night," he confessed nonchalantly. "Had a lot of things on my mind-"

"Ah, Sakura-san," she cut in, and he shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

"That obvious, is it?" he said without much mirth, and Tsunade sighed again, shaking her head.

"She's standing right behind you," the Hokage muttered amusedly, moving over to welcome the young woman as Kakashi turned abruptly, once again glad that the mask he wore covered his crimson cheeks. Sakura's jade green eyes met his for one uneasy moment, and Kakashi gulped, frozen in place by the reality that she was really there with him, that she was alive and well, and this time, the man that had escorted her yesterday was not present. _Breathe_, he urged himself silently. _Just breathe._

"Good morning, Kakashi-san," she said softly, her cheeks flushing prettily. "It seems that Hokage-sama was telling the truth yesterday of my being a Jounin. You didn't hear me approach."

"Hai," he nodded, his voice sounding coarse as if he hadn't used it in years. "You hadn't remembered that as well?" Sakura shook her head, an even deeper shade of pink slowly spreading across her face.

"Hokage-sama told me a few things last night t-that surprised me…" Her voice faded as she shyly looked away from him, using her long hair to her advantage as she swiftly hid her expression behind a curtain of pink tresses.

"Ah," he said, understanding her discomfort, and he looked helplessly to Tsunade, not knowing what to say next.

"This is perfect, actually," Tsunade said, a sly smirk on her face, and Kakashi tensed, knowing that that look meant nothing good.

"What is, Hokage-sama?" Sakura questioned, sweetly ignorant, painfully reminding Kakashi of what exactly he had lost when he thought he had lost her. The pang in his heart stabbed further into his chest as he studied Sakura's face, one that he had memorized every tiny detail of, and knowing that she was still unaware of how deeply they felt for each other burned him more than he cared to show to the rest of the world.

"Last night, I asked you to come back to my office this morning so that I would have been able to tell you a little more of your past," Tsunade began. "I was going to then ask one of your former teammates to escort you around town to reacquaint you with places and people from your past, but now that Kakashi-kun is here, it seems that my job will be far easier than I had anticipated."

"Hm?" Kakashi's visible eye widened at what Tsunade implied, but he was still having a little trouble digesting the information of spending the day, a whole day, with Sakura.

"I apologize, Sakura-san, but I'm more busy than I thought I would be this morning," Tsunade continued, sending Kakashi a furtive wink, "but I don't think Kakashi would mind giving you the tour of Konoha, would you Kakashi-sensei?" Kakashi found himself giving them a confirming nod, although Sakura's panicked expression made him suspect she was about to protest against the arrangement.

"I wouldn't mind," he answered softly, "but it seems as if Sakura-san would be uncomfortable with-"

"Nonsense," Tsunade interrupted, giving them both a huge smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have important business to attend to." As she turned away, she whispered in a lower tone to Kakashi, "It's your chance to reawaken her memories, Kakashi-kun. I don't like that fiancé of hers; he's a rather suspicious fellow." He started at her words, but she waved him away, and said, "Explanations later." In a louder tone, she waved at the two, calling out, "Have fun!" before bringing her attention back to the carving of her stone face.

Kakashi and Sakura looked at each other for another uncomfortable moment, and he uncharacteristically gave a nervous chuckle.

"Well, uhm…should we start, then?" he said, fumbling for words, and when she nodded, he walked ahead of her, leading her down the stairs and out of the building. His heart pounding, Kakashi was well aware of her walking only a few steps behind him, and his thoughts went back to the days when he used to be her sensei, leading her and the rest of Team 7 out on their missions. He suddenly felt old, knowing that she was no longer the girl that had cared only for Sasuke's affections; she was now a grown woman, one that he still loved dearly, and yet, she had him feeling like a young, adolescent boy out on his first date. He didn't know exactly what to say to her or how to act around her, and above all, he was self-conscious as he felt her green eyes bore into the back of his head in an intense gaze, as if staring at him hard enough would help her figure out what part he played in her missing past.

"Uhm…" Her uncertain voice drew him out of his thoughts, and he stopped in his tracks to look back at her, his breath catching in his throat as he saw that her blush never left her face, and she turned even more red at his attention to her. Out of habit, he almost reached for her hand, but when her eyes widened, he froze suddenly before bringing his hand back to his side.

"Sorry," Kakashi muttered in a low voice, turning away from her. "What was it that you wanted to say...?"

"It must be hard for you," she said just as softly. "I-I can't even imagine what it would feel like…"

"...Yeah."

"In all honesty, I-I w-was about to object to…to t-this," she said, flustered. "It wasn't because I didn't want to, b-but…you just s-seem so…_upset_ when I'm near." He snapped his head to gaze at her, and she stammered even more. "I-I know that t-that was probably very presumptuous of me-"

"I wouldn't call it 'upset,'" he cut in, continuing to walk in the way that they were headed to before, and he heard her pattering footsteps as she quickly got over her shock to catch up with him. She now walked by his side, refusing to fall behind him.

"Where are we going to first?" she inquired, gazing up at him.

"The Academy," he answered, well aware that as they continued to walk down the streets, they encountered numerous stares, and even a few people pointed rudely in their direction, and at first, it unnerved the pink-haired woman. As he snuck a glance at her, however, he saw the insecurity in her expression melt away to that of determination, and her steely eyes met every glance that was shot their way. It was almost as if Kakashi were reliving the moment six years back when they had first started their relationship, when Sakura had proudly held his hand in public for the first time, challenging those who opposed it to step forward, which no one did.

A lump arose in his throat once again, and he pretended to cough when she suddenly glanced up at him. She took note of the tiny blush that could still be seen just under his exposed eye, and without warning, she felt her stomach do a tiny flip flop as she watched him. _Why does this feel so familiar?_ she thought to herself as she watched him. _It's like…_

"This happened before," she said mostly to herself as her right hand drifted to rest on her abdomen.

"What?" The disbelief in Kakashi's voice was unmistakable, and Sakura grinned slightly, pointing to her stomach.

"It's just that…I feel sorta funny," she explained as they neared a building with a large Konoha emblem plastered above the entrance. "Like I have a stomachache or something." Kakashi jolted to a stop at her words as he stared at her in alarm, his heart racing a thousand beats per minute. It was as if their relationship were repeating itself over again, and he felt a bit faint from the overwhelming desire building inside of him to take her in his arms and beg her to remember, to force her memories back into her mind. He wanted nothing more than to erase all the pain and loneliness that had consumed him in the period of time that they had been separated, and nothing more would heal him than to have her love him again. Her words, the same words she had used long ago, were bringing back those times he had been most happy, reminding him of all the joy that he had held within his grasp, only to have it all swept away.

Sakura looked at him apprehensively as she drew close to him, and only then did he realize that a tear had escaped his eye and had made it's way down his cheek, slightly dampening his mask, and he cleared his throat as he swiftly wiped the wet trail away.

"Have I said anything wrong…?" she asked tentatively, concern written clearly in her eyes, and he shook his head, suddenly aware of how close they really were. He could see every fleck of blue that managed to slip into the green of her eyes, and he could feel his entire attitude softened as he studied the gentle curves of her face.

Sakura knew her heart was thumping madly within her chest, but no matter what she did, she couldn't calm down its incessant beats to a normal pace. It was as if she was suddenly back in Tsunade's office, wanting to do anything to heal the suffering that the man in front of her emitted, and despite what her mind was telling her, she knew that there was something there that she was missing, something that was desperately trying to reconnect the severed bond that she had shared with Kakashi. Looking into the only eye he had left uncovered, it was hard for her to deny that this man was still in love with her. The message screamed clearly in the way he was desperately trying to restrain himself from doing anything drastic to scare her away.

As if her body were also imploring her to remember Kakashi, a sharp pain began to throb within her stomach, spreading throughout her limbs before reaching her face, causing her to twitch her lips into a trembling frown. "I don't know why…" she stammered as she blinked her eyes to clear them from the blur that distorted her vision, "b-but, seeing you like this…it hurts…" A tear fell, then two, and suddenly, she was sobbing, crying out as a tortuous sting exploded all over her body, electrifying all her nerves. She threw herself against him, clinging onto him as she gritted her teeth to take the pain. As soon as her arms had wrapped themselves securely around the startled man, her mind throbbed madly as if it were pulsing to the beat of her heart, and she bit back a yelp, knowing that the physical contact between Kakashi and herself had called upon another forgotten memory…

* * *

"I-I love you," Sakura admitted cautiously to Kakashi, and she waited patiently for him to say something in return, studying his face for any reaction…any at all. But when he didn't respond, the sting of rejection hit her full force, and she looked away from him, attempting to control her emotions long enough to do some damage control. She didn't want their friendship to disappear, especially since theirs was one that had taken years to grow. As much as she wanted to convince herself that this was something she could get over quickly, her heart was telling her otherwise as it pounded painfully, internally weeping the tears that she refused to shed at that moment. She opened her mouth, willing for words to come out. She didn't care what she said as long as she puzzled him long enough for her to escape without him speaking words of consolation. She didn't want to hear his apologies for not feeling the same.

"I know it's foolish of me," she began to babble, "but after all these years together, I couldn't help but admire you. It hasn't been until recently that I'd realized that my admiration had grown into something more, but I was too blinded with my attraction to Sasuke to fully understand what had happened. I'd fallen in love with you without recognizing what I was feeling, and I just passed it off as an upset stomach, because every time I was near you, my stomach would react, making me feel all funny. Haha, isn't that amusing? You give me stomachaches! Haha, and I haven't even seen what you really look like yet, oh, not t-that that matters really. It doesn't really change how I feel." She knew her cheeks were about to explode from the amount of heat that had built up in her face from sheer humiliation, but she was stammering at an uncontrollable rate, unable to stop herself from speaking. "Uhm…I don't know why I'm saying all this. Haha! I guess I just expected much more after disclosing my feelings, but obviously you don't feel the same way, so I should go now and stop embarrassing myself any further-" She attempted to walk away when he finally spoke.

"Sakura." Her knees nearly gave away at the sound of her name on his lips, and she closed her eyes for a brief second, cherishing the way he pronounced every syllable. His voice was so beautiful, bringing tears to her eyes, but she held them in check. 'I'm a Jounin!' she thought hotly to herself. 'A shinobi never shows emotion! But that doesn't stop the hurting…'

"You don't have to make me feel better, sensei," Sakura continued in an uneven tone, desperately trying to control her pain. "I'm perfectly fine, don't worry about me-"

'Please don't worry about me,' she thought silently. 'It'll only make this harder than it should be. Please, Kakashi, don't feel sorry for me…'

"Sakura," he repeated, this time moving closer to her, and with one arm extended, he took her hand in his.

'Oh. My. God. He's touching me!' Inner Sakura screamed. 'He's touching me, he's touching me, Oh. My. God, he's touching me! HELL YEAH!' Her excited thoughts nearly drowned out the rest of Kakashi's words, but she strained her ears to catch them as she snapped her head up to look at him, giving him her undivided attention.

"I don't know exactly what I'm feeling, but we could give this a try, ne?"

"Really, sensei…?" she whispered in disbelief, and he chuckled again, shaking his head at her befuddled expression.

"You can start by calling me Kakashi," he said with a grin. "You're no longer my subordinate…You haven't been for a while."

"Kakashi," she muttered, wiping her tears away with the back of her free hand. "I-I don't know what to say-." At that moment, Kakashi enveloped her in his embrace, and she wanted to weep at how perfectly well they fit each other.

"There's no need to say anything," he replied simply, lightly nudging her nose with his covered one. "Sometimes words are inadequate at times like these." She nodded and smiled, and he lowered himself back onto the grass, pulling her along with him. Sakura settled against him in a comfortable position, as if she had always known all along how to do so. They sat together in blissful silence and watched the sky change from a warm orange to a gentle lavender as the sun began to dip below the horizon.

"How do you think the boys will react to this?" she inquired, and Kakashi shrugged, concentrating on their entwined fingers.

"They'll accept it," he said. "Not quietly, but they'll accept it."

* * *

As the thoughts faded, Sakura could hear a soft, comfortable tone whispering in her ear, and as the rest of her mind settled back to the present, she became aware of the strong arms that held her steady on her feet, and beneath her cheek, she could feel the excited pounding of a resilient heart. She straightened up, opening her eyes to gaze into Kakashi's face, and with the gentle curves of the mask, she could tell he was smiling softly at her. 

"Kakashi," she murmured back to him, lines etching her forehead as she furrowed her brow. "A…A memory came to me, b-but because I wasn't startled out of it, I remember it clearly this time around."

"What was it?" His insecurity slipped into his voice as she pulled away from him wearily.

"It was when I had first told you a-about h-how I felt about you," she whispered, looking away. "The images were so real, so vivid. Watching the memory almost felt as if it were only yesterday…" Her voice trailed off, and she looked back up at him, frowning. "I didn't expect that I'd remember anything like that so soon-"

"S-Sakura!" a high-pitched squeal came from the building in front of them, and the two Jounins looked over to the entrance where a tall blond woman had exited from, her crystalline blue eyes wide with disbelief. A second later, a man followed her out of the building, a scowl on his face as he sighed.

"Ino, what are you doing, stopping in the middle of the doorway just like that?" he questioned, highly irritated. "I almost bumped into you-"

"Sakura, is it…really you?" the woman, Ino, called out, jogging over to where Sakura and Kakashi stood, and although the blond stopped a few feet away, her eyes were visibly glassy as she stared at the pink-haired woman. Sakura stared at her a moment, slightly tilting her head to the side as she studied the other woman, narrowing her eyes as she tried to remember her face.

"Sakura?" The man who had been scowling seconds before was now standing next to the blond, gazing at Sakura with the same amazed expression.

"I'm sorry, but-" Sakura began.

"Ino, Shikamaru, she doesn't remember anything past five years ago," Kakashi interrupted bluntly. "It's a long story-"

"B-but…we thought you died!" Ino cried out, obviously not having heard Kakashi as she embraced Sakura, weeping heavily on her shoulder. "Sakura, what happened to you? I thought you to be dead, e-even though it was hard to believe at the time-"

"Ino," Shikamaru tried to cut in.

"-and I was having so much trouble accepting the fact that you were gone, but you're here, you're actually here!" She continued to babble as Sakura stood stiffly underneath her embrace, visibly uncomfortable. "You don't understand how much we've all missed you, Sakura-"

"Ino!" Shikamaru said a little louder, but to no effect.

"-why haven't you kept in touch if you had been alive this whole time?" Ino drew back, finally taking a breath as she held Sakura at an arm's length away, gazing into Sakura's confused expression.

"Ino!" Kakashi and Shikamaru bellowed simultaneously, finally drawing her attention away from the trembling Sakura.

"What?"

"She doesn't remember anything," Kakashi repeated with a sigh, and Ino recoiled sharply away from him.

"What do you mean?" she said, turning her tearful gaze back to Sakura.

"It's a long story, but it involves that mission five years ago," Kakashi explained. "Something happened when her team was attacked, and her opponent managed to erase her memory with a powerful genjutsu. She's been living in the Hidden Cloud Village since, before she discovered a token from her past that led her back here to Konoha."

"So, you don't recognize me…or Shikamaru?" Ino said, her face crumpling once more, and Sakura shook her head sadly, her own eyes tearing up.

"No, I don't," she whispered in response, "but your name is familiar to me…Ino." She gave the blond a small smile. "I found a diary in my former room, and the first entry mentioned you. My best friend, right?" Ino nodded, frowning. "If we were best friends before, then we can be best friends again…ne?" Sakura smiled wider this time until Ino returned the favor with a smile of her own, and instead of hugging her again, Ino settled for a handshake, as if to seal the deal.

"Of course, Sakura," she said warmly, and Shikamaru gently grabbed a hold of Ino's hand, diverting her attention.

"Maybe we shouldn't bombard her with so many questions right now," he advised, his eyes softening at the amazement in Ino's expression as she gazed at Sakura. "It might be too much for her to handle." Ino slowly nodded in agreement, and when she turned back to Kakashi and Sakura she smiled wider.

"We have to go check on our Genin teams," she said apologetically. "We just stopped by the Academy to pick up a few scrolls, and our kids get impatient when we're late." Her eyes misted slightly as she added,"There are two girls, one on each of our teams, that remind us of how we used to be, Sakura." She shook her head to herself, as if to clear her thoughts. "We should catch up soon, ne?"

"Ino…" Sakura felt her shoulders droop as she watched the other woman walk away with Shikamaru trailing behind her, and she only broke her gaze when she felt Kakashi's hand on her back, gently pushing her forward into the building.

"Come," he said simply, and she nodded as she followed him.

The long corridor looked vaguely familiar, and as she gazed up studying the walls and ceiling, she nearly bumped into Kakashi when he had stopped abruptly in front of her. He was peering into a classroom, and he motioned for her to step inside with him. She did so with caution, but was relieved to see that it was empty, and he watched her as she tentatively studied her surroundings. He leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest, wondering if the classroom was going to jolt another memory from her suppressed mind.

"Is anything coming to you, Sakura?" he questioned her, and she circled around, her eyes narrowing, before she looked back at him and shook her head. However, the sight of Kakashi in the doorway standing as he was made her stiffen, and her mind released an image, though this time, she was ready for the slight physical pain that she now knew was part of recovering her memories.

Her eyes grew wide as she stared at him for a faded picture of a chalkboard eraser falling onto his head played in her mind, and she let out a giggle and closed her eyes, fully allowing herself to delve into the memory.

"It was here, wasn't it?" she whispered after a minute, her eyes still closed. "We first met here, and that loud blond kid played that trick on you, with the eraser!" She opened her eyes, only to discover that Kakashi had moved closer, standing now only a few feet away. The gentle way the cloth on his face curved upward indicated that he was smiling, and she smiled back, a bubbling energy bursting within her. Remembering even the smallest memories was beginning to excite her, and with a lump in her throat, it began to fully hit her that she was finally discovering her past and a sense of who she had been. Tears prickled the corners of her eyes as she let out a joyous laugh, and she sprinted forward, hugging Kakashi in the process.

"Sakura…?" he whispered so softly, though speaking volumes of hope at the same time.

"It's just…I'm now getting to see a past that I'd wondered about for the past few years," she answered. "Puzzle pieces are starting to fit together, and it makes me so happy to see that there really is a place that I once truly belonged to…" Her voice faded away and she gulped, realizing that another one of her spontaneous movements had brought Kakashi and herself physically closer. His face was only a few inches away from hers as he looked down at her, and she blushed but didn't pull away. She wasn't about to deny how right it felt when he held her, how she almost knew that their bodies were meant to fit together so perfectly. She realized guiltily that she never felt this complete when Kazuki held her.

"Even after all this time…" Kakashi's voice had grown soft and husky, and he hesitated, unsure of whether or not he should continue.

"…Yes?" Sakura encouraged, unable to pull herself away from him.

"I still love you, Sakura," he whispered. "Being this close to you again, it's almost like I'm dreaming-" He abruptly cut himself off and closed his eye before pulling away from her. "I shouldn't have said that to you so soon," he continued, breathing heavily as he turned away to face the doorway. "We should go-"

"Wait!" she demanded as he started to walk away. "Don't you think what I said to Ino applies to you as well, Kakashi?"

"What was that?" he said, still not turning around to face her.

"If it happened before, it can happen again," she said evenly.

"Things are different for us now," Kakashi sighed, turning to finally look at her. "You have a fiancé and are to be married soon-"

"But you're different from Kazuki," she blurted out. "I guess I mostly stayed with him because I was so grateful that he saved my life and allowed me to live with him when I didn't know anyone. After five years together, I couldn't help but love him." Her lips trembled nervously, as if trying to stop from blurting out deep secrets she kept to herself, but she continued. "But there was always something missing, and lately, even before I came here, I've been wondering about my relationship with him, about why I stayed with him, about why I accepted his marriage proposal even when I wasn't completely sure I wanted to marry him." Kakashi could feel his heart racing with each line of her impromptu confession, and he dared not say a word for fear she would stop speaking if he did. "It was as if I only did what I thought I was supposed to do," she said. She struggled for what to say next, and when she couldn't find the words, she merely shrugged in defeat. "And now that I'm here, I don't know what I'm supposed to do anymore."

"Don't force yourself," Kakashi said after a few moments. "Don't let my feelings for you interrupt what you came here for. Forget what I said earlier-"

"I've done enough forgetting as it is," she replied hotly. "I owe it to myself and to my past not to do anymore of that."

"I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head, as if to berate himself.

"Don't be," she sighed.

"We should get going," Kakashi muttered, desperately wanting to change the subject. He knew he wasn't emotionally ready to discuss their past relationship just yet. "There are still many places that we should visit-"

"I want to see your face," Sakura cut in, not making any effort to follow Kakashi out of the door. "I want to see what you look like without the mask. I want to see just you."

"No," he said firmly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Now, let's go-"

"No," she shot back at him, her eyes full of defiance. "I'll only leave if you let me see your face-"

"No."

"Then we're not leaving."

"That's fine," he sighed, walking back into the classroom and sitting at one of the desks. "I'll just wait here until you change your mind."

"I won't."

"You will," he said in full confidence, irritating her even more, but before she could say another word, he whipped out a book from out of the kunai holster he had tied to his leg. Her mouth dropped open in shock as he opened to a page he had bookmarked, and her eyes widened when she read the title of the book. Her cheeks flushed, but he made no movement as he calmly and quietly read.

"Y-you actually read that filth?" she stammered incredulously. "'Come Come Paradise Volume 20?'"

"One of _our_ personal favorites," he said, and if he hadn't been wearing his mask, Sakura could have sworn he was smirking at her.

"Ex-excuse me!" she shrieked at him, blushing hotly when he pointed to a spot on the page.

"This one particular story actually gave us a few ideas," he continued nonchalantly, enjoying her reactions. "The descriptions were-"

"I've he-heard enough!" she yelped as she ran out the door quite clumsily, and when he heard the sound of heavy scrolls hitting the floor accompanied by a girlish cry of pain, he shook his head, tucked his book back into his holster, and walked out into the hallway to help her.

Sakura, however, was already on her feet, helping Uchiha Sasuke pick up the scrolls he had dropped when she had run into him in the hallway. Kakashi's heart sank when a familiar look took possession of Sakura's face, one that she had always worn years ago when she and Sasuke had been together. However, it wasn't so much Sakura's reaction that bothered Kakashi.

It was Sasuke's.

* * *

**TBC…**


	5. Chapter Five: Unexpected Rivalry

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own _Naruto_.

**AUTHOR'S (long) NOTE:** If you haven't noticed, I've reduced my use of Japanese phrases within my story while editing. Honorifics are still kept in tact, but I figured that if I have readers who know absolutely no Japanese whatsoever, I don't want to distance them too much with an overuse of Japanese phrases, especially since _Naruto_ is on the verge of exploding here in the US. Besides, I don't really have enough time to include a glossary.

I've also decided to slightly change Sasuke's relationship with Naoko along with the Sasuke & Sakura break-up scene. This chapter in particular never made me very comfortable since I do like to keep the characters in-character as much as possible in the given situations, and I figured that Sasuke doing what he did was a little too much out-of-character. Also, I've decided to plant more plot seeds in this chapter about a certain moment that I quickly alluded to in the conversation between Kakashi and Sasuke in the first chapter. When rereading this story, Sakura and Kakashi's relationship seemed almost too perfect, so I'm going to elaborate on some trust issues that I had originally planned to put in the story but failed to do so when I got carried away with the melodrama.

* * *

**Never Forgotten **  
By: Goddess-Isis-112

Kakashi's heart sank when a familiar look took possession of Sakura's face, one that she had always worn years ago when she and Sasuke had been together. However, it wasn't so much Sakura's reaction that bothered Kakashi.

It was Sasuke's.

* * *

Chapter Five: Unexpected Rivalry

"Kakashi-sensei, good morning!" Sasuke greeted Kakashi with a grin when he approached the laughing couple.

"Sasuke," he nodded in response, and the young Uchiha's smile faded a little at the coldness he detected in his former teacher's voice.

"What are all these scrolls for?" Sakura asked, unaware of the tension between the two men, and her interruption was welcomed as Sasuke's grin was restored back to its original brilliance. Sakura's heart stopped momentarily as she gazed at him, now knowing why her younger self had been so excited about him in her diary entry.

_'He's gorgeous!_ Inner Sakura squealed, making a sudden, rare cameo in her mind. It had been a long while since her inner thoughts had been this active, and Sakura started a little at the sudden voice in her head. _That smile of his could make any girl - or guy - swoon! Heheheh-'_

"I'm on the way to meeting the team of Genin that I lead," he explained, interrupting her thoughts as he pointed to a classroom a few doors down. "They're a bunch of bright kids, but these scrolls should help them improve their techniques-"

"Sasuke-kun!" a female voice called out, and they all looked to the entrance to see a stunning young woman with bright green eyes running toward them, her jet-black hair flying behind her in one long braid. She froze mid-step when her eyes landed on the pink-haired kunoichi, and she gasped, clutching the pack she held even closer to her chest.

"Sa-Sakura…?" she whispered in disbelief, a tiny twinge of fear creeping into her green eyes, and Sakura frowned in confusion, looking to Sasuke for explanation. Sasuke stared back and forth between the two woman, visibly squirming while Kakashi was inwardly pleased with the turn of events.

"Who is she?" Sakura whispered to Kakashi, though she kept her eyes trained on the woman before her, sizing her up as if she were a rival…_a rival for Sasuke's affections_, Kakashi realized, his heart doing an unexpected flop. He frowned and cleared his throat.

"I think Sasuke should explain, right, Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi said in a loud voice, enjoying the sight of Sasuke cringing. _Ha, bastard, get yourself out of this predicament,_ Kakashi thought evilly, though a part of him felt slightly guilty for taking his frustration out on his former student. He had, after all, seen a part of himself within the Uchiha boy when he had trained Team 7 years ago. He shook his head slightly, amazed at what the love of a woman could do to the friendly bond that he and Sasuke had shared. He knew, however, that that wasn't the only reason the tension between the teacher and his former student had suddenly grown hostile. One of the last memories Kakashi had been able to make with Sakura before her disappearance hadn't been a happy one.

"Naoko, what are you doing here?" he heard Sasuke hiss to the woman, jolting Kakashi out of his thoughts.

"I saw you rush by my house, and I got worried when you didn't stop by to pick up the lunch that I usually make for you," she stammered, her cheeks flushing as she stared at the carefully prepared box in her hands, and Sasuke's eyes softened just a little.

_'Oh, **HELL** NO!'_ Inner Sakura screamed insanely. Sakura gulped, knowing that the interaction between the two was making her jealous...and incredibly so. She hadn't felt this jealous since…'_since Ino and I were rivals,_' a thought continued, and she blinked, wondering where in the world that had come from. She studied Sasuke with her peripheral vision as she kept her gaze on the Naoko girl, who flinched under Sakura's heated gaze.

"So is it true that you don't remember anything?" Naoko asked her, finally raising her eyes to meet Sakura's. As it had already happened several times that day, her mind burst with sudden energy. Sakura teetered on her feet, her eyes rolling to the back of her head before they closed, and the last conscious thought she had before everything turned black was: _'Her eyes are the same as mine…'_

Kakashi caught her in his arms just before she blanked out into another memory retrieval sequence.

"Is she alright!" Sasuke fired at his former teacher as if it were his fault, and Kakashi glared right back at the Uchiha, his voice harsh.

"Of course she is," he growled out when Sasuke tried to aid him in holding her, but Kakashi pulled her out of his reach. "It's been happening all morning; her memories are coming back little by little, but it hadn't been so intense as to make her pass out like this." He shot Sasuke another glare before concentrating all his attention to the woman he held in his arms, his anger melting away as he settled himself on the floor, cradling her close to his chest. His fingers traced over the curve of her cheek, and he hoped she'd wake up soon. "It must be a bad memory," he whispered to himself, when she twitched slightly, letting out a sob. "I'm here," he muttered into her ear when tears began to build in her eyes. "I'm here, Sakura…I'm here…"

* * *

_Sakura twisted her head from side to side, hearing satisfying cracks as she relaxed the tension in her body. She paused every few minutes or so on her way home to stretch out muscles that threatened to cramp up. It had been a tiring day of training with Tenten, whom Sakura had asked help from to train for the Jounin exam._

_Sakura had been too shy to ask Sasuke to help her, especially since she was scared that the boundary between work and their love life would intermingle. Insults that might have flown between the two in training wouldn't be forgotten at night when they had dinner together, and it would have strained their relationship into something that they wouldn't want to be a part of. She knew that training with him would be a bad idea, no matter how much time she wanted to spend with him._

_However, because of all her training, there seemed to be no time left at all for their relationship. She frowned as she reached into the empty space above her head to give her arms a good stretch. Sakura realized then that she hadn't seen Sasuke at all in the past couple of weeks due to her intense training, save for the time she came back home at night when she would pass out on the futon next time him, too exhausted to say anything more than "Good night" after her nightly bath. It was hard not being able to be there for Sasuke, especially since he'd finally been able to open himself up to her little by little after the shock of finally killing his brother Itachi had eased away. Although he wasn't one to show too much emotion, he did eventually come to smile much more whenever she was around, and it had been much too long since he had shared one of those rare smiles he kept just for her._

_A sudden knot formed in her calf and she stifled a groan as she immediately reached to her toes in an attempt to ease the tension. Her thoughts went back to Sasuke, and she smiled to herself, letting her thoughts roam freely, flirting with the idea that maybe he would one day propose to her and officially make her his wife. It was enough to leave her giggling in the middle of the street, but she kept her cool as she continued on her way home. A couple caught her eye as she passed by Ichiraku, and her smile reduced slightly to a smaller one as she recognized Naruto and Hinata._

_She also hadn't asked Naruto to train for the Jounin exam with her as he was much too busy with his own training with Jiraiya as well as saving time for his newly found relationship with Hinata. There was also that one incident..._

_As Sakura slowly walked by the couple, Naruto immediately looked in her direction, and she gave him a feeble smile. He grinned back at her, but it pained Sakura to see how forced it actually was. Their eyes met briefly, and Naruto abruptly turned away, breaking their contact as he focused on the oblivious Hinata. Sakura hung her head, sadness creeping into her tired demeanor. If only things hadn't turned out the way they had-_

_"Oof!" A book dropped to the ground in front of her, and Sakura immediately bowed to whomever it was she bumped into._

_"I'm so sorry!" she apologized as she reached for the tome, but as she read the cover, she quickly picked it up, her cheeks aflame, and thrust the book into the waiting hands of her former sensei. Kakashi chuckled at her reaction and quickly waved her apology away. He quietly told her to return home and rest, and Sakura did nothing but nod in response and silently watched as he continued on his merry way, deeply engrossed in his favorite reading material.  
_

_As she watched him, Sakura wondered why she never felt comfortable enough asking Kakashi to train her for the Jounin exam when she had trained under him for so long, but even after all the years she had known him, he was still an enigma that she couldn't quite figure out._

_In any case, Sakura knew she would feel much better training with a kunoichi like herself, someone who was more her peer than someone who held authority over her, like Tsunade-sama. The Hokage was her mentor afterall, but she was constantly busy with all different kinds of business that it would have been difficult to ask her just to spend the day sparing. Sakura also needed someone who didn't have a relationship to consume her time, and someone who already knew what the Jounin exam was all about, which left only one person in Sakura's mind: Tenten._

_They had been training for months, and Tenten had said that although Sakura was a little slower than most when it came to taijutsu and ninjutsu, Sakura was definitely improving. That day's session had gone so smoothly that the elder kunoichi had ended their training much earlier…at least that had been her first excuse._

_When prodded a little with burning questions, Tenten finally admitted that she actually had the courage to ask the person she had liked for the longest time to go on a date with her, and he readily accepted with a toothy grin. Tenten was finally going out on her first date that night with Rock Lee, and Sakura had been so happy for her that she nearly strangled the older girl with an enormous, excited hug._

_Sakura sighed as she finally arrived at the house she now shared with Sasuke, and she wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand. Now that she was able to return home early for once, she hoped that she could finally spend some quality time with the man she loved. _

_ "I'm home!" she called out, taking off her sandles by the doorway. The smile that had spread across her face in anticipation for Sasuke's, "Welcome home," greeting faltered slightly as she heard no response. 'He probably didn't expect me to be home so early, so he probabaly went out,' she thought to herself as she headed toward their bedroom to gather some clean clothes and take an early bath. Her hand paused on the door as she heard muffled voices, and upon hearing Sasuke's urgent voice, her heart began to hammer with dread. Staying silent, Sakura leaned in closer toward the closed door.  
_

_ "Look, I was wrong, and I don't want this," he said, his voice growing angry._

_'Who the hell is he talking to-?' Sakura started to wander when a familiar female voice cut in. _

_ "You know I'm in love with you," the girl sobbed. "You didn't push me away before-" Sakura's eyes widened at the revelation, and almost immediately, her heart began to burn with an indescribable pain. She refused to give into the impulse to clutch at her chest, though the ache was rapidly growing unbearable. 'What the hell does she mean by that?' Sakura's thoughts rushed to find a logical reasoning that didn't involve a betrayal on Sasuke's behalf, but her mind failed in its desperate search for an answer.  
_

_"I don't love you," Sasuke replied coldly. "Leave me alone-"_

_"You are alone!" the girl snapped back. "She's never home for you when she promised she wouldn't leave you. Where the hell is she now?" Sakura could almost see the world in a sea of red as her anger flowed through her veins. Without knowing what else to do, Sakura lifted a trembling hand to the door, silently sliding it away to reveal her presence.  
_

_"Sakura!" Sasuke stared at her, unable to do anything as Sakura scanned the scene before her. As her eyes landed on the other occupant of the room, her hand formed into a fist and she felt herself readying a punch, but two arms suddenly held her back. Sasuke's scent washed over her, but she refused to grow weak as she struggled against him.  
_

_ "Let me go!" she cried out, but Sasuke spun her around until she faced him. His hands reached up and wiped the tears she didn't know had been streaming down her face, but she wouldn't allow herself to succumb to his touch. It rushed back to her at that moment how she had waited for so long to feel Sasuke hold her so tenderly like he was. She had pined away as a child, as a teenager, and as a young woman for such a moment when he would look so lovingly into her eyes as he wiped her tears away. Under any other circumstance, she would have gladly melted into him, but the moment was tinged with irony because she wanted nothing more than to be as far away from him as was physically possible. "Sasuke, let me go, damn it!"_

_"No!" he refused firmly, holding her against him. "You have to listen to me-"_

_"Why should I?" she spat. "All this time I've been training hard, and you go and cheat on me with Naoko of all people-"_

_"We didn't do anything-"_

_"Shut up!" Sakura cut in. "If you hadn't, then why is she here?" With surprising strength, she pulled free from Sasuke before spinning around to face her cousin. Naoko's eyes travled to the doorway behind Sakura, the only exit out of the room, but before she could come up with an escape plan, she was at the receiving end of a roundhouse kick. She found herself airbourne, and the sickening crack of her body slamming against the wall was the only sound that registered as she fell into unconsciousness._

_ Sasuke stared at Naoko's lifeless body in complete surprise, and his sharp eyes caught the subtle movement of her short intakes of breath. She was still alive, but she was going to be out cold for a long while. He looked at Sakura who had huddled herself at the nearest corner, and he immediately rushed to her and reached out his hands to her, only to have her recoil from him as if his mere presence burned her._

_"How could you...?" Sakura accused him, her eyes bright with anger. She shakily got up to her feet and walked unsteadily toward the door. Sasuke grabbed a hold of her arm, and she immediately found herself slapping him hard before shoving him away. He could've avoided the hit if he had wanted to, and they both knew this as they stared at each other, but she refused to look into his eyes longer than she had to._

_"Nothing happened between us," Sasuke explained softly before adding with more thought, "...Nothing that meant anything." He hung his head guiltily as she glared at him, knowing exactly what he meant as she read between the lines.  
_

_"...Is this how lightly you think of me?" Sakura hated how her voice quivered, especially when she didn't want to show just how broken she felt, but her resolve was slowly fading as she took in Sasuke's remorseful face and his dark eyes, those eyes that always beckoned her despite her wishes. She shut her own and turned away, her mind screaming at her to get a hold of her senses. She could feel him approach her from behind, his arms reaching out to hold her, but she knew that if she stayed there any longer, she would not be able to walk out while she could. In a burst of uncontrollable pain, she fled._

_"Sakura!"_

_Ignoring the sound of his voice, she rushed out of the house almost blindly, her vision distorted with tears to the point that she could barely identify anything as she ran past._

_"Sakura!" Sasuke still called after her as he recovered enough from his shock to chase after her, but as she quickly zipped through the crowded streets of Konoha, it was becoming more and more difficult to follow her, especially since her emotions were causing her to make thoughtless, erratic movements.  
_

_But try as she might, Sasuke was gaining on her as she ran out of the house, and ignoring the stares she was receiving for her wild appearance, she fled blindly into town. A hand grabbed her arm and swerved her around, and she stood face to face with Sasuke._

_"Sakura, let me explain-" he pleaded, and she forced her eyes away from his, knowing that the more she looked into his eyes, the weaker she became._

_"Let me go!" she hissed at him angrily, trying to pull away and failing miserably. Her lips trembled as she tried to hold in her sobs, resulting in a choking sound that was breaking Sasuke's heart the longer he listened._

_"No, Sakura, please," he said, desperately grabbing onto both her shoulders, but no matter what he did, she wouldn't look at him._

_"I loved you," she whispered, stopping her struggles. "I loved you so much that I begged for you to take me with you when you fled with that rogue band of ninjas long ago. I would have done anything for you, Sasuke-kun." She lifted her head to finally look up at him, her green eyes flashing angrily. "I defended you when the village hated you for choosing the life of a missing-nin especially with Orochimaru! I argued endlessly with Hokage-sama when everyone wanted to execute you when you came back after killing Itachi, and-" she sobbed harder, "-I rejected Naruto-kun when he proposed to me, when he promised to make me happy! I did all of this for _you,_ and the only thing I wanted was for you to be with me. That was all I asked…"_

_"Sakura…" Sasuke had no idea how to reply, as if only realizing then how much pain he had caused her even before his brief interlude with Naoko. "I-I'm sorry," he muttered. "I just had a moment of weakness-"_

_"J-just…FUCK OFF!" she raged, her eyes flashing dangerously at him, and before he could react, she swung her fist in his face. His feet lifted from the ground before he roughly landed quite a few feet away, his eyes wide at being the target of her insanely powerful punch, and he barely lifted his gaze up in time to see her quickly escape._

_Sakura formed the seals for the replication technique as she turned a corner and ran into a crowded street. Sasuke gaped in disbelief that Sakura would use her ninja skills to try to get away from him, but as he turned the corner and spotted eight different Sakuras fleeing into different alleyways, he called out his Sharingan eyes to spot out the real one from the fakes._

_However, as he glanced at each of the eight figures, he came to a halt. None of them were real, and his heart sank, wondering how in the world he could have lost her so easily. His Sharingan faded back to intense black, and he took a moment to wipe the tears that had slipped down. Not caring who was watching him, he began to look for her the old-fashioned way, bringing his hands around his mouth as he yelled, "Sakura!" He walked slowly down the street, glanced from side to side, calling her name every so often, but yielding the same result. She was gone._

_Once he was out of range, Sakura slowly let down the sheet she was hiding behind when she had leaned against the fence she had utilized as part of her disguise, using one of Naruto's old tricks from when they were young. She didn't think it would have been that easy to deceive Sasuke, and she allowed herself a small, bitter smile before her tears blurred her vision again._

_Her stamina was never one she boasted about, and the chase she had just experienced drained nearly all of her energy, especially since it happened so soon after her training session with Tenten. Her knees unceremoniously buckled beneath her, and she gave out a startled cry, closing her eyes to ready herself with the inevitable crash to the ground._

_But it never came._

_Through her tears she could make out the fuzzy outline of a masked face and one visible eye. Kakashi's arms supported her as she rose to her feet unsteadily, and he clucked at her as she leaned heavily against him._

_"I thought I told you to hurry home and rest," he said gently, though his eyes conveyed his worry. "If you train this much, you won't have any energy left for the test itself!" She shook her head at him, tears flowing freely this time as she thought of Sasuke._

_"I-It is-isn't th-that, sensei!" she bawled, circling her arms around him as she sobbed against his chest, her tears soaking his green vest. Alarmed, he immediately moved the two of them away from prying eyes as she spilled the news to him, her shoulders heaving and her cries interrupting throughout the entire rant. She wouldn't let go, needing the warm comfort he provided for her, and he merely held her as she wept._

* * *

"Shh, it's alright," she heard when she came to, and with effort, she lifted her heavy lids to see Kakashi's masked face just above hers. His mask wrinkling, she knew he was smiling in relief. As she blinked, she realized that her tears were real and not just part of some memory, and she sat up slowly, leaning heavily against Kakashi. Sasuke kneeled before her, his concern written plainly on his face. 

"Are you alright, Sakura?" he questioned, and she recoiled from him in alarm, her angry gaze flashing at him before turning to Naoko.

"I-I…you-" she began before looking away.

"Sakura…?" Sasuke placed a hand on her shoulder, and she immediately slapped it away, as if his touch burned her.

"I-I remember!" she sputtered at him, and with effort, she pulled away from Kakashi and stood up, wiping her tears away. "You…and her…You cheated on me…"

"S-Sakura," Naoko began in a quiet voice, but Sakura glared at her, her hands forming two angry fists.

"Don't talk to me-" she snapped, turning her heated gaze to Sasuke.

"No! You don't understand! You weren't the only one in love with-"

"You're my _cousin_," Sakura hissed at her, watching as Naoko's face crumbled with guilt, "and yet…y-you…"

"I couldn't help myself," Naoko whispered. "He looked so alone all that time you were training. I only wanted to comfort him-" At those words, random images began to flash in Sakura's mind, but in her rage, she gritted her teeth and embraced the pain of her recovering memories, focusing only on the girl in front of her.

"I _was_ there for him when he needed someone the most," Sakura spat out, trying desperately not to pass out while trying to make sense of what her mind was trying to tell her at the same time. "Because of you, something that took years to establish was tarnished-" Letting out a sob, Sakura reached an angry hand out, knocking the boxed lunch out of Naoko's hands before she landed a swift roundhouse kick, hitting Naoko precisely in the back of her neck with just enough force to knock her out without breaking her bones. Surprised with just how much skill she had in ninja techniques, Sakura tore out of the building with impressive speed, her talent in the molding chakra to her feet never having faded.

"Shit!" Sasuke exclaimed, staring at his fallen fiancée before kneeling down next to her. "Who would've know that Sakura would do this again to Naoko," he muttered. "She used the same moves and everything."

"That bitch fucking deserved it," Kakashi snapped, moving to follow Sakura. "I wouldn't have liked for Sakura to remember _that_ event so quickly, but now it can't be helped. You and Naoko both were…_are _fucking idiots." Before Sasuke could retort, Kakashi was gone in a puff of smoke, and doors slowly slid open, faces peering in wonder at Sasuke-sensei and his unconscious fiancée.

Sakura ran, her tears blinding her as the pain she had felt back then was once again tearing at her from the inside. The love she had felt for Sasuke was back, as well was the bitter taste of his and Naoko's betrayal. With that emotional memory now restored, smaller, but rather significant memories were still rapidly buzzing inside her head. Visions of her waiting by Sasuke's bedside in some sort of hospital wafted through her thoughts. She had peeled an apple for him and had cut it up into sections, attempting to feed him, but he angrily flung the platter out of her hands, the lovingly cut apple scattered on the floor.

Another memory came of her hugging Sasuke from behind in the middle of a dark forest, as if to prevent him from doing something dangerous. His whole body seemed to be covered in black swirls, as if he had gotten into an accident with a huge bottle of ink. She remembered how scared she felt when her arms wrapped around him, how her heart jumped nervously when his dangerous eyes locked with her teary ones, just as the black swirls began to fade from his skin.

"He had a cursed seal," she found herself whispering into the air, as she finally slowed her running to a stop in the middle of a green clearing. She had absolutely no idea how she got there, but she found herself in front of a black marble cenotaph. She closed her eyes tightly as if to finally stop the painful images from resurfacing, but one more managed to slip into her conscious mind as she sank to the floor in painful agony…

* * *

_It was a dark night, but the moon and the stars were shining brightly above with a deceiving sense of calm. Sakura shivered slightly as she waited in a deserted walkway just a short distance from the Academy. She hoped she was wrong in her premonitions, but she waited for him just in case. Her heart dropped when she finally saw him emerge from the shadows, walking through the archway that separated the school and the part of town that led out of the village. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the pack that he carried on his back, and she could tell from its bulkiness that he intended to be gone for a long while. Her gaze then fell on his face, his forehead protector absent. She gulped, praying that this wasn't going to be their last meeting together. The thought alone made her want to cry, but she restrained her tears, for the time being anyway._

_"Why are you prowling around here in the middle of the night?" he questioned first, breaking the silence between them. His voice was colder than usual, and she flinched, wanting to yell the same question back at him._

_"I knew you'd come this way if you were to leave," she answered instead, looking at the ground before her. "So I just waited here." She could feel his penetrating eyes on her, and it took all of her will to keep herself from breaking down._

_"Get out of here and go back to sleep," he ordered harshly before looking away, and she panicked momentarily as he began to walk away, his footsteps almost so quiet she hardly heard them. He had just brushed past her when she felt her will diminish._

_'This isn't how it's supposed to happen!' her mind was yelling insanely. 'This…this can't be the last time I see him! No! He can't leave me…Sasuke can't leave me!' Her lips trembled as she heard him walk farther and farther away from her when suddenly, she spun around, unable to keep the tears from falling._

_"Why won't you say anything to me!" she demanded softly, her frustration and hurt mingled together in her tone. "Why do you always keep so quiet? You never say a single word to me…?" The words she really wanted to say continued within her mind, her Inner Sakura crying softly for once. 'Sasuke-kun, can't you see this kills me! Don't leave me, please gods, don't walk out of my life…!' He paused his steps though he didn't turn to face her. She could only watch as the wind did what she wanted her own fingers to do as it blew playfully through his dark strands, caressing them lovingly as if to plead with him to stay._

_"I told you I don't need your help." His words were blunt and sliced cleanly through the outer layer of her heart. "Don't try to look after me." They both fell silent, unsure of what to say next, and Sakura succumbed to the sniffles that had attacked her once her tears had started flowing. She felt the corners of her lips curve into a small grin as her eyes caught sight of the bench that she had sat on when she had waited for Sasuke to return to her the first day they had become Genin. She felt her heart crack even more when she recalled how cold he had been when she had blabbered too much about Naruto and about her theories on why he was so 'selfish.' She admitted to herself after the incident that she had spoken more than she needed to and that her words probably hurt Sasuke as much as it would have hurt Naruto, had he had been around to hear them. She flushed slightly, thinking of how foolishly naïve she had been; it was no wonder Sasuke never bothered with her much. She always said the wrong things around him, but it wasn't her fault at all, she mused. Being around him always made her nervous, as if she always had to impress him with words since her ninja skill wasn't as remarkable as she would have liked._

_"No matter what, you just always hate me, don't you…?" she thought aloud, her words laced with the tiniest hint of bitterness. "You remember, don't you?" Sasuke remained silent, and she took it as a sign of agreement. Her heart tumbled further down her chest, almost refusing to beat. "When we became Genin, the day when our three-man team was first decided, the first time we were _here_ by ourselves, you were so mad at me…" Her voice trailed off a bit, and she mentally slapped herself for saying too much the way she always did whenever rejection became too much for her to handle. She trained her eyes on his feet, wondering how in the world she was going to get herself out of the conversational disaster she had put the both of them in._

_"I don't remember that," he finally muttered, startling her out of her worries, and although she suspected he was lying just to spare her the humiliation of recalling such memories, it hurt to think that an episode that had affected her so much meant nothing to him since he couldn't even remember it._

_"Hahah, I guess you're right," she blabbered with no real mirth. "That's all in the past, huh?" She risked a glance at him before she returned her gaze to stare at his blue sandles. "That's when it all began though," she continued, a genuine grin fighting its way onto her lips as she allowed nostalgia to take over. "You and me…along with Naruto and Kakashi-sensei…we did all sorts of missions, just the four of us." Her voice began to tremble. "It was painful and difficult at times…even with that though…I still enjoyed it!" Her voice had become stronger as her resolve once again became clear in her mind. It was her own self-imposed mission to make him stay, and it was a mission she refused to fail without putting up a good fight. However, she sighed and gentled her tone. "I know all about your past, Sasuke-kun. Even if you get revenge, though, it won't bring anyone happiness. Not even you, Sasuke…" She wondered if she said too much once again, but there was no denying how much she wanted to express how she truly felt to him. If getting to him through harsh words was the best way to go, then she would give it all she had._

_"Nor me…" he muttered softly. "I already know."_

_'WHAT!' Inner Sakura screamed indignantly, wanting to pommel her fists at him. 'Then why the hell is he doing this! Why the hell is he-'_

_"Up until now we've done everything as a group," he continued, and for a moment Sakura fleetingly thought of how ridiculous it was to keep a conversation with his back turned to her and suppressed her urge to make him face her. She was sick of always staring at his back, especially when he walked away from her. "But there is something else that I must do. Deep inside my heart, I've already decided on revenge. For that reason only do I live. I'll never be like you or Naruto!" At those words, a fresh bout of tears fell down her cheeks, and she was overwhelmed with her desire to scream at the injustice of it all. 'Can you see that there is much more for you to live for!' she wanted to beat into his head. 'Can't you see that happiness is right there within your reach, you fucking idiot!'_

_"Do you really want to go back to being alone!" Sakura blurted out to him, desperation clinging to every syllable. "You told me how painful it was to be alone! Right now, I know your pain! I may have friends and family, but…" She began to sob, unable to keep her composure, "…if you were to leave…to me…to me, I would be just as alone as you!" She hiccupped as she took in a breath to calm her erratic breathing, but the realization that he might actually be leaving was only starting to hit her at that moment. There was no way she wanted to go on living in Konoha without Sasuke there; he was the reason she got up every morning, he was the reason she tried so damned hard to excel, and he was the reason she lived. He was stubborn, stoic and downright cold most of the time, but she accepted him, her childish crush evolving into that of real, pure love. Their missions together allowed her to see him as he was, and it became her own life's goal to show him that he didn't have to be alone anymore._

_"From here on out we all begin new paths," he said, emotionally detached from his words, and Sakura nearly growled out in frustration with him. She wasn't going to restrain herself any further, and the words she had wanted to say to him for the longest time came tumbling out of her mouth in one huge breath._

_"**I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!**" Her body shook with devastating hopelessness that she nearly collapsed. "If you were to stay with me, there would be no regrets! Everyday we'd do something fun, we'd be happy, **I SWEAR!** I would do anything for you…so…**please stay with me!**" Her hands gripped into tight fists at her side as her head drooped in vulnerability. "I'll even help you with your revenge…I don't know what I could do, but I'll try my best to do _something_. So please…stay with me…or take me with you if you can't stay here…" She sniffed before gulping in the crisp night air, wondering if he'd finally understand how much she cared about him with her proposition. If taking on the life of a missing-nin meant being with Sasuke, she would kiss Konoha good-bye and fling her headband protector into the river. She didn't care anymore; she'd give it all up for him…just for him._

_He finally moved, and Sakura looked up eagerly, daring to hope that maybe she had in fact reached him with her words. However, reality came crashing down when he muttered, "You really are annoying." Her eyes widened at him in disbelief, though as she studied his face, there was a warmth in his smirk that hadn't been there previously, but before she could analyze his reaction any further, he continued to walk down the his path, and cold dread filled her bones. 'No…NO!' Inner Sakura cried._

_"DON'T LEAVE!" she tearfully pleaded, her breath now labored. "IF YOU DO, I'LL SCREAM!" She watched as he froze, and in the blink of an eye, he disappeared only to reappear behind her. She let out a tiny yelp of surprise but was rendered motionless as his scent wafted around her, and he was close enough for her to feel heat emanating from his body. She had longed for him to be near her, she had dreamed of it forever, but it frightened her out of her wits just then._

_It actually felt like good-bye._

_"Sakura…" he whispered tenderly, and her face crumpled into a wrinkly mess. His breath was hot against the back of her neck, and she wanted to spin around and cling to him, though she knew he was too fast for her to do so._

_'Why is he doing this…?' she wondered. 'Does he really…could he love me back…?'_

_"Thank you," he said wistfully, and she let out a silent gasp, not knowing what to make of the words. Was he really, truly thanking her after all this time-_

_She couldn't finish the train of thought as a warm hand made it's way to her neck, and she barely had enough time to register the loud crack that ensued. She felt her heavy lids close as her body slowly bent to gravity, and her conscious mind slipped into darkness. 'No!' Inner Sakura protested. 'Don't let this be good-bye! Don't let it end this way! Please-'_

_"Sasuke-kun…"_

* * *

Sakura blinked, noting the salty drops that continued down her cheeks. She wasn't quite sure why exactly Sasuke left her the way he did. As curious as she was to remember his reason, she clutched at her head, forcing herself to breathe, hoping that once she calmed down, the inundation of memories would pause…just for a while. She wasn't sure if her heart could handle anymore memories of heartbreak. It had all happened too quickly for her to cope with. 

Her eyes focused more clearly on the cenotaph before her, her gaze drawn to a bouquet of beautiful sakura blossoms lying on top of the memorial. She rose to her feet, dusting her clothes free from the grass blades that had clung to her, and she approached the black marble cautiously. The bouquet was still fresh, though it was damp with the morning dew; it had been lying there a day or two at most. Her hand instinctively brushed the soft pink petals, and as soon as her fingertips grazed them, an image of Sasuke's smiling face flashed in her mind. She recoiled from the bouquet, wondering why it made her think of _him._ The tears that had stopped momentarily sprung to life, and she let out a resentful laugh. She had been so taken with him when she had first come back to the village. Ignorance had truly been bliss when she hadn't known that he was the cause of so many wounding memories. It seemed their past together was nothing more than a tearful melodrama.

"I see you've found the bouquet Sasuke-kun left for you yesterday."

Sakura whirled around, her hand reaching for a kunai holster that no longer hugged her right thigh. The motion was useless as she knew that she had no weapons to protect herself with, and instead, her hand went back to her eyes and swiftly wiped the tears away.

"How'd you find me Kakashi-san?"

"Your body is also responding to your memories," he noted, not answering her. "Returning to a familiar environment must be bringing back old habits."

"How'd you find me?" she repeated again, refusing to be deterred, and he shrugged casually.

"Instinct," he drawled. "You really knocked out Naoko back there, by the way. I don't think she'll wake up for another hour or so-"

"That bitch fucking deserved it," Sakura spat, amazed by the venom in her voice. Kakashi's one eye crinkled with delight, and she was sure he was smiling at her.

"That's exactly what I told Sasuke when I left to follow you," he sang in a happy tone. "Seems that even though we're both a little older, we're still compatible, aren't we?"

"Don't tease, please," she replied tiredly. "This is becoming too much for me!" She let out a growl before glaring at him accusingly. "I don't think I should have come back here! If I'd known that my life had been this screwed up, I wouldn't have left my home-"

"It wasn't always so sad," he said quietly. "We were happy…when we were together." Almost at once, she felt tactless and readied an apology, but he shook his head to dissuade her from doing so. "Don't, Sakura. You'll understand when you recover all your memories." He looked away from her, moving toward the cenotaph, caressing his fingers over a name. "Even if you do decide to leave later on after this is all over, please promise me that you won't regret coming back," he whispered to her, keeping his focus on the marble. "The woman I loved may really have died the day she lost her memories, but knowing that a little part of her survived to live a happy life is enough closure for me," he added softly. "That's all that would matter, even if it means sacrificing my happiness for hers. It's entirely worth it."

"Even after all that you've been through, after all that's happened, you'd still let me go if it meant I'd be happier living back in the Hidden Village of the Cloud?" Sakura sounded awestruck, as if she wasn't entirely worthy of such a deal, but Kakashi merely turned around to gaze at her.

"Of course."

"But why!" she shot out. "Why would you just let that happen?"

"I've given you the reason before, Sakura," he sighed. "When you love someone, you have to learn to let them go, especially if that person doesn't wish to stay with you. I honestly wish I could be selfish and keep you here with me for all eternity, but who am I to do so? Holding you here against your wishes would only make you unhappy, which wouldn't make me happy, and we'd both be miserable," he explained in a cheerful voice that did not suit the subject at hand.

"It would still hurt you very much though," she said, lowering her eyes as she scanned the cenotaph, and with a start, she recognized her name among the many on the memorial. Noticing her reaction, he merely nodded at her.

"You're right, as always," he muttered, running his fingers once more over the marble. "All I would have left is…well, _this_." He paused his hand over her name for a moment, before turning to look at her. "Well, the day is still young. Don't you want to see more of the village?"

"I want to see you," she stated quietly, her eyes focused on him. "And don't you pull out that trashy novel this time-"

"Sakura, no," he protested firmly.

"Why not!" she huffed in a whiny tone that reminded him of the times he had always shown up late to their meetings for daily missions. His eye crinkled as he smiled beneath his mask, drinking in her image as much as possible, knowing that should she leave his life once more, he wouldn't get another opportunity to stare into her beautiful emerald eyes, which were glaring at him right at that moment, though he didn't exactly mind. When he didn't reply, she let out a frustrated groan as she scowled at him. "UGH, you're so…you're just so…so-"

"Handsome? Cool? Smart? Did I mention handsome-"

"IRRITATING!" She shot out, crossing her arms over her chest.

"That's what you loved about me," he informed her matter-of-factly.

"No way," she growled. "I never-"

"I was a mystery to you," he recalled wistfully. "That was what really attracted you, you know. That and the fact that I'm also really cool and handsome-"

"You're so full of yourself!" she sighed, shaking her head at him.

"I'm only joking," he said, his cheerfulness deflating somewhat.

"How do you do it?" she wondered outloud, and he furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Do what?"

"Know exactly what to do to distract me from trying to get you to remove your mask?" she replied. "You always manage to go off on tangents and digress, and I never get to see you-"

"Why is it so important that you see my face?" he inquired, raising his one visible eyebrow.

"It's just…I-I…you…well…" Her voice trailed off as she looked completely stumped. "I don't really know," she finally answered, sighing in defeat.

"Good, since that's settled, let's go to Ichiraku," he said, turning on his heel and walking away.

"What for?" she questioned as she hurried to his side, and if he hadn't had his mask, she could have sworn he was smirking at her.

"It's time to reacquaint you with Naruto-kun," he said pleasantly.

* * *

**TBC…**


	6. Chapter Six: Separation

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't know own Naruto! Kishimoto-sensei is the genius behind it all.

* * *

**Never Forgotten**  
By: Goddess-Isis-112   
_© 2004 by Valerie Royo_

"Why is it so important that you see my face?" he inquired, raising his one visible eyebrow.

"It's just…I-I…you…well…" Her voice trailed off as she looked completely stumped. "I don't really know," she finally answered, sighing in defeat.

"Good, since that's settled, let's go to Ichiraku," he said, turning on his heel and walking away.

"What for?" she questioned as she hurried to his side, and if he hadn't had his mask, she could have sworn he was smirking at her.

"It's time to reacquaint you with Naruto-kun," he said pleasantly.

Chapter Six: Separation

Ichiraku wasn't as busy as usual when Kakashi and Sakura made their way into the quaint ramen stand, but what was normal was the shinobi who occupied his regular seat. It was the blond who had nearly jumped on her the night she had arrived in Konoha, and although he had frightened her with his straight-forwardness, he now seemed at ease and extremely calm. On his face was a look of pure ecstasy as he slurped his noodles into his mouth, and Sakura looked questioningly to Kakashi as he took a seat next to him.

"Ramen for breakfast again?" Kakashi greeted, startling the blond from the tiny world of bliss he had delved into the moment the ramen had been placed in front of him.

"Hi, Kakashi-sensei!" he replied, grinning broadly. "I have no idea what you're talking about. It's almost lunchtime!" Sensing another presence, Naruto turned around and let out a happy screech. "SAKURA-CHAN!" He jumped up quickly, a splitting image of last night's performance, and before she could protest, he had dragged her down into the seat on his right before sitting back down between Sakura and Kakashi. Calling an attendant, he ordered two more bowls of miso ramen for his companions, and he looked so happy that Sakura couldn't find it on her heart to deny him company for lunch and simply smiled at his exuberance. He had been too much to handle the night before, but she felt more at ease, now that the atmosphere was much more casual.

"You must be Naruto-kun, I take it?" Sakura began, and for a moment, Naruto appeared confused before realization set in, and he nodded.

"Yeah," he said sheepishly. "I forgot about your forgetting your memories for a moment, heh. It almost felt like old times…" He let out a nervous chuckle as he went back to digging into his ramen. It was odd to see a person he had grown up with look at him as if he were just another stranger, and he almost wanted her to smack him on the head like she used to, just to bring back the familiarity between them.

Noting the quick change in his attitude, Sakura felt the corners of her lips turn downward, feeling quite guilty about bringing the disappointment to his face. Though she had only really met him, his discomfort did not suit his lively persona one bit.

"I'm sorry," she apologized softly. "I keep upsetting people because of what happened-"

"No, no, don't worry about it!" he cut in, immediately forcing a smile onto his face. "There's nothing to be sorry about, Sakura-chan! Heh, so you've forgotten a few memories. We can still help you make new ones, right, Kakashi-sensei?" He turned to Kakashi who just nodded in reply.

"Were you always this optimistic?" Sakura questioned, finding herself smiling back at him.

"Of course!" he laughed. "There's no use in being down all the time, now is there?" Just then, the ramen arrived, and he motioned for her to dig in right away.

She picked up her chopsticks, but a thought wheedled its way into her mind, and she stared to her left past Naruto to Kakashi. _There's absolutely NO WAY he can eat with that mask on!_ she thought with a grin, as she brought the noodles to her lips. She leaned closer to the counter, keeping her eyes on Kakashi the entire time, paying no heed to the steam coming from her bowl.

Kakashi snapped his chopsticks apart, before bringing a hand to the top of his mask, and Sakura could feel her heart hammering away in excitement, though she wasn't so sure what exactly she was expecting to see. '_C'mon, Sakura, get it together!'_ Inner Sakura commanded. _'If he was so hot, why the hell would he be wearing a mask in the first place! He must be hideous!' _Despite how much sense that made, she felt doubtful that there was truth to it.

"Sakura, I'm glad you find me so irresistible and charming that you can't keep your eyes off me, but your ramen will get cold if you don't eat it up soon." She blinked as Kakashi stared back at her expectantly, his mask still in place. She looked away, blushing profusely, and quickly stuffed a few noodles into her mouth, surprised at how tasty the ramen actually was, but no matter what she did to distract herself from Kakashi, she could feel his intense stare on her as she ate.

Naruto looked back and forth between the two, but didn't pay any mind as he continued to eat merrily, hoping that after a full stomach, Sakura would be more talkative. There was so much he wanted to say to her, to tell her, and he was also more than willing to listen to her story of what had happened to her in the past five years. He was so happy to have one of his best friends back, even if she didn't quite remember him, but the tension going on between Kakashi and Sakura would have to be solved somehow if they were to have a normal conversation together. However, things only got worse.

"Sakura!" An agitated man stood just behind them as Sakura swiveled her chair around, and it took her a second to realize who it was.

"Kazuki!" she yelped, immediately jumping to her feet. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" he retorted, crossing over to her angrily. "You left no note, no clue as to where you'd be!" He drew her into a tight embrace, which made Naruto want to vomit his newly digested lunch, and he glanced nervously to Kakashi, who appeared to be faring well, despite what was playing out before them. "I've been wandering around the town looking for you! I didn't know what could have happened."

"I'm sorry to have worried you." Sakura's voice was muffled as she was pressed against his chest, and she sighed inwardly at how it seemed she was always apologizing.

"There's no need to worry about her here in Konoha," Kakashi spoke up from his seat, and Kazuki released Sakura as he stared down her former fiancé. "Sakura's a capable Jounin-"

"Even so, she hasn't trained in years!" Kazuki fired back, placing a protective arm over her shoulders. "What if she had met someone unpleasant-"

"Actually, she had, and her opponent received quite a beating," Kakashi relayed with a grin, thinking of how easily Sakura knocked out Naoko, a Chuunin. "Trust me, Sakura knows how to take care of herself. Besides, nothing would have happened to her since I was with her-"

"What the hell were you doing with him!" Kazuki shot out to Sakura, suspicion screaming in his tone. "You leave me early in the morning to go on a secret rendezvous with this masked freak-"

"Hey, wait a minute-!" Naruto sputtered and was clearly offended on Kakashi's behalf.

"I went to see Hokage-sama!" Sakura defended, her face red with her growing anger. "Don't you remember what she said last night? She wanted to see me this morning, so I left to go to her office. She was going to call Naruto-kun or Sasuke-kun to take me around the village so I could reacquaint myself with everyone from my past! Kakashi-san just happened to be there, and she thought it would be better if I just went with him, since we were on the same team after all-"

"Like he didn't plan it that way," he sneered in Kakashi's direction, and grew even more annoyed when his aggravation had no effect on Kakashi whatsoever.

"He was surprised to see me there, so it's obvious he didn't!" she stated, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

"I don't want to see you with him, Sakura," Kazuki growled in a low voice. "He's up to no good-"

"You don't even know him!" Sakura screeched as Kakashi restrained Naruto from jumping up and giving her fiancé a good punch to the face.

"And you do?" Kazuki scoffed. "You can't even remember a goddamn thing-" Sakura slapped him across the cheek, her palm stinging from the impact, and he stared at her, surprised more at her strength than at her reaction.

"That was low, even for you," she whispered, holding back her tears. "It's not my fault I lost my memory, so don't you dare insult me about it! I'm having a difficult time as it is, and I especially don't need you to make things harder than they should be." Disgusted and above all, completely hurt, she backed away from him before returning to her seat next to Naruto. "Just leave, Kazuki."

"Sakura-"

"LEAVE!" She gripped her chopsticks tightly in her hand, refusing to look at him. "I thought that you'd be more understanding of what I need to go through, but if you're going to act like this, then I don't want to see you right now."

"Sakura…" Kazuki started, but when she didn't reply, he sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I'll wait for you back at your house, then." Without another word, he was gone in a puff of smoke.

"WHY DO YOU STAY WITH THAT IDIOT, SAKURA-CHAN!" Naruto growled out, finally releasing the frustration he had been feeling throughout their argument. "He ain't nothin' but a whiny, wannabe-Sasuke-lookalike bastard!" Sakura shot him a sad smile, wondering how in the world she could have forgotten someone like Naruto. She was sure that if Kakashi hadn't been there to hold him back, Naruto would have been running his mouth off at her fiancé, and she knew that the situation would have been far worse than it had been.

"There used to be many reasons, Naruto-kun," Sakura answered slowly. "Now, I'm not so sure. Ever since we arrived in Konoha, he's been a little jumpy-"

"If he EVER does anything to you like that again, I swear I'll make sure-" Kakashi gave Naruto a warning glare, "-Kakashi-sensei kicks his ass for you." He grew pensive as he studied her lack of reaction and frowned. "Sakura-chan?"

She didn't reply as her face contorted in pain, her chopsticks snapping in half beneath the pressure of her tightening fist.

"Sakura!" Alarmed, Kakashi was at her side in an instant and supported her as she nearly toppled over from the intensity of the upcoming memory.

"Is Sakura okay?" Naruto's voice was low as he stared on, grabbing onto Sakura's free hand and nearly yelped at her tightening grip.

"A memory is coming back," Kakashi muttered, never taking his eyes off of her. "Sometimes when one is so intense, it becomes physically painful for her." He glanced at the man over the counter who had paused momentarily to watch the drama with Kazuki, and he was now looking on in worry at the trembling woman. "Please, have a glass of water ready," Kakashi nearly barked, and the man scurried to complete the task.

* * *

Sakura sat by the window, watching as snow began to drift down from the skies, and she sighed in contentment, nursing a cup of steaming hot chocolate in her hands. Her ankle was still a bit swollen from her last mission, and the cold weather did nothing to make it feel better.

"I wonder when Kakashi will be back," she muttered idly to herself, bringing her mug to her lips, and in an instance, hands were over her eyes. She grinned against the rim of her mug before lowering it. "You know I hate when you sneak up on me like that, Kakashi." He removed his hands as she turned her head to look at him with a smile, making room for him on the couch as he carefully took a seat next to her.

"Is your ankle still bothering you?" he asked, studying her feet as she perched them across his lap.

"Just a bit, but it's almost healed," she answered and looked at him affectionately as he began to message the offending ankle. She closed her eyes in contentment as his hands moved up her calf before venturing further up her body. A giggle escaped her lips as she opened her eyes to find him already positioning himself on top of her. "You move quick, don't you?"

"You can blame it on my training as a shinobi," he answered back, nuzzling his nose against her neck before reaching out to remove her cup of chocolate out of her hands. Quickly placing it on the coffee table a few feet away, he returned to his former position, paying particular attention to the sensitive skin of her ear, enjoying the quick inhalations of breath that he knew he was causing her to take.

"Kakashi, do you think we should do this so soon after last night…and the nights before?" she asked as she opened her eyes to look at him, her cheeks growing red.

"Don't tell me you don't enjoy it?"

"It's not that, and you know it."

"Oh good, because Jiraiya-sama came out with another Volume that we could look at-"

"What I meant was, I could get pregnant, especially after these past couple of weeks, and we haven't exactly been careful-"

"Pregnant?" Kakashi repeated, never losing focus on his actions. "Would it really be that bad?" His reply made Sakura stiffen for a moment before she paused his movements, forcing him to look at her.

"You wouldn't mind having a child?" Sakura pressed on, and Kakashi was silent for a moment as he contemplated his answer.

"Sakura, I love you," he started, "and you love me, and we've been together for a while. And we're happy, right?"

"Yes, that's right," she said blankly, wondering why he was stating the obvious.

"So…?" He studied her as if waiting for an answer.

"I don't understand what you're getting at," Sakura giggled, shaking her head. "You always go explaining things in a roundabout way."

"I guess this is my inarticulate way of asking you to marry me," he said nonchalantly as he continued his exploration of her body. "Starting a family with you isn't a bad idea at all-"

"Wait…" Sakura stopped his movements once more as she straightened up a bit. "Did you just ask me to marry you, Kakashi?"

"Yeah," he answered sheepishly. "You don't have to answer right away, you know-" Sakura felt her eyes begin to tear up as she wrapped her arms tighter around him, and her hands slowly loosened the headband protector from his head and she dropped it unceremoniously to the floor. She then cupped his cheeks with her hands as she laid a kiss on each of his eyelids before curling her fingers beneath his mask to draw it down from his face.

"My answer is yes," she replied lovingly as she gazed into his eyes. "Yes, I want to marry you!" He didn't say a word as she continued to pull his mask down, and as each of his features were revealed, she sighed with happiness, giving the tiny dimple next to his perfectly shaped lips one of her daily pokes, causing him to break out in a wide smile. "I love you, Kakashi…"

"I love you, Sakura." He leaned forward and their lips met in a fevered embrace, and they never let each other go until the early hours of the next morning.

* * *

"Hey, hey!" Naruto's loud, booming voice filtered into her ears as she slowly blinked away the last moments of her memory. "She's coming to! Give her the water-" Suddenly a glass was tilted right before her lips and she obliged, gulping down the cool liquid into her parched throat. She looked to the man holding her securely against his chest, and she lifted her hand, her index finger poking into a spot on his mask, the spot where his dimple was bound to be. Kakashi's eye widened in surprise as he gazed into her eyes, and they silently knew that she had remembered seeing his face. He took the glass of water away as he helped her up, and she smiled softly at him.

"It's about time a good memory decided to make it's way to the front," she said, attempting to joke. "A marriage proposal is something that one should never forget."

"So that was what it was," Kakashi commented, releasing his hold on her as he turned away. He looked longingly to streets just outside the stand and said softly, "I think we've done enough for today, don't you?" She blinked at him, surprised and somewhat hurt at his sudden change in attitude.

"But, I'm fine!" she argued weakly, turning her gaze to look at Naruto who looked completely lost. "I'd still like to go around Konoha with you. I-"

"Naruto can take you," Kakashi interrupted, "that is, if you aren't busy, are you, Naruto?"

"No, I'm not," he replied, looking from Kakashi to Sakura, obviously not understanding what exactly was happening. Kakashi didn't say anymore as he hurried to make a quick exit.

"What is with you?" Sakura swiftly crossed the room, blocking Kakashi's path. "What's wrong…?" Her green eyes bore into him, and he fought the urge to squirm under her penetrating gaze. They remained as they were for a few seconds, the chef making the only noise in the room with his food preparations. Just outside the stand, the sounds of the street were beginning to drift in as the rest of the town began to wake up.

"I thought I was ready for everything," he said after a moment of silence, "and Naruto, don't you dare try to walk out." Sakura's attention turned to the blond shinobi who had inched away. Like a small child being caught sneaking cookies in his mouth before dinner, Naruto allowed an embarrassed grin to slide across his face.

"I know that Hokage-sama warned me about your condition, but…your memories are coming back faster than I realized they would," Kakashi continued. "I'm not sure if I can handle it." He paused. "Emotionally, I mean."

"It hurts you to be with me," Sakura ventured, allowing the burst of pain that engulfed her heart at the words.

"Something like that." He noticed her dissatisfaction with his answer and elaborated. "Look, just yesterday, I thought you to be dead for five excruciating years. Just when I thought I was starting to heal a little bit, it turns out that your death never really happened, though with your engagement to Kazuki, death seemed all the more pleasing. And although it was hard, I knew how to handle it because I had already accepted my fate of living a life without you. Now, with these memories of the two of us together…with you acting as if you want…as if you want to be with me, I'm not sure how to handle it."

"I thought that this was what you wanted, isn't it?" Sakura demanded. "Didn't you want my memories to come back quickly? Didn't you want this? Almost as much as I did?"

Feeling rather uncomfortable, Naruto tiptoed his way out of the stand despite Kakashi's earlier threat, deciding that it was much better to leave the heavy atmosphere and wait outside for the two to finish their tiny misunderstanding. Naruto had grown used to different kinds of tension, especially when in battle, but witnessing such a personal argument was something he didn't want to be a part of.

Kakashi ignored Naruto's exit this time and slowly looked into Sakura's face as he gulped. "You know how I feel about you, Sakura. I had mistakenly blurted it all out before you were ready to hear it. But I won't allow myself to believe that you might come back to me. These memories…they're just that: memories of the past. We have to live in the present; all there is left for us is to move forward. As I held you while you remembered my proposal, I…" He broke off, the words becoming difficult to say. "If I were to stay with you throughout this process of recovering your memories, I would regress into the same stage I had battled with over the years, and that was the stage in which I refused to live a day without you. Forgive me for being selfish, but I won't allow myself to return to that frame of mind."

"So you're going to abandon me right now, is that it?" Sakura whispered, glaring at him.

"I'm not a perfect person," Kakashi replied. "Nor am I as strong as I would like to be. I thought I could handle it, but it really is starting to become too much for me-"

"I need you." Her quiet admittance quickly shut him up, and he was left speechless as he stared at her, studying the sincerity of her words reflected in the unprotected emerald pools of her eyes. Her lips trembled at the enormity of what she had said and at the emotional vulnerability she now put herself in at her revelation. "Kakashi-san, I know I've emphasized how I don't remember much of anything, and that problem has caused headaches for more people than I expected. I didn't know I'd feel this much pain when I returned to Konoha, and I especially didn't account for the pain that you had to go through for all these years in my absence. I'm trying to make up for all that right now, if only you'd let me." She sniffed in a manner he recognized as trying to hold back tears. "What little I have been able to remember, my memories of you have been fond…loving. As much as it is hard for me to admit this, not once have I felt this way ever with Kazuki or anyone."

"Don't make this difficult," he whispered.

"I understand where you are coming from," she continued. "I know you don't want to feel that same kind of pain you went through when we were separated, but you're forgetting that I'm here now-"

"But there is no guarantee that you won't leave again!" he cut in, his biggest fear now out in the open. "If I allow myself to even believe that you'd stay only to have you ripped apart from me, I'm not sure I could heal a second time around-"

"But I…I think I-"

"Don't say it, Sakura," he warned, his visible eye narrowing. "You've only been back for less than a day, and what memories you've recovered of me are only a little glimpse of what our past together had been like-"

"And that's all I need to know!" she interrupted. "I was happy when I was with you! Before I regained these few memories, I didn't think it was possible for me to be truly happy because I've always known deep down that something was missing in my life. But now, all of that's changed because…I'm here…I'm here with you." She slowly took a step closer to him, afraid that if she moved too fast, he'd scamper away like a frightened animal. "I'm here, Kakashi. Why can't you see that?"

"That's the problem," he muttered. "I see you all too clearly." Without another word, he was gone in a puff of smoke, and Sakura let out a startled cry as she reached out only to find herself grabbing onto nothing but air. Naruto rushed back in at her shriek and stood puzzled when Kakashi was nowhere to be found.

"Sakura-chan?" He started cautiously, noting her bowed head and trembling lips. With one last sniff, she quickly shook her head and forced a strained smile on her face, but the superficialities did nothing to conceal her pain.

"Let's go," she said in an artificial, cheerful manner, and Naruto gave a small grin, knowing that it was much wiser for him not to question about Kakashi's sudden departure, and Sakura was grateful for his understanding. After paying for their meals, Naruto and Sakura made their way out.

Kazuki slowly stepped out of the shadows just behind the shop, terminating his concealment jutsu, a specialty that only shinobi from the Hidden Village of Cloud knew, and he clenched his hands in anger. He watched as Naruto and Sakura blended with the rest of the villagers that rushed through the now crowded street, and he growled in disgust.

"I'm not going to lose her to that one-eyed freak," he muttered to himself. "I've got to get her out of this damn village before she remembers how she really got to the Hidden Village of Cloud." Enabling an Invisibility Jutsu, he jumped high onto the rooftops of the tiny shops, quickly finding Sakura's pink hair in the crowd, and he proceeded to follow her and her loud companion.

* * *

TBC… 


	7. More Discoveries of the Distant Past

**Disclaimer:** A bunch of people seem to own _Naruto_ now. I'm just not one of them.

**Author's Note: **I highly suggest rereading chapter 5 over because of the editing that I've been doing to the story over the past several months, and there's a big change in what happens when Sakura comes home from Jounin training. I wanted to change the dynamics of her relationship with Sasuke, and I feel that this will add just a tiny bit more tension to the story as well as strain Sakura and Kakashi's seemingly perfect relationship. Other than that, I can't apologize enough for the long delay in getting this latest chapter out. I know it's been over a year…but…well, life just happened.

**Never Forgotten**

By: Goddess-Isis-112

_Kazuki__ slowly stepped out of the shadows just behind the shop, terminating his concealment jutsu, a specialty that only shinobi from the Hidden Village of Cloud knew, and he clenched his hands in anger. He watched as Naruto and Sakura blended with the rest of the villagers that rushed through the now crowded street, and he growled in disgust._

_"I'm not going to lose her to that one-eyed freak," he muttered to himself. "I've got to get her out of this damn village before she remembers how she really got to the Hidden Village of Cloud." Enabling an Invisibility Jutsu, he jumped high onto the rooftops of the tiny shops, quickly finding Sakura's pink hair in the crowd, and he proceeded to follow her and her loud companion._

**Chapter Seven: More Discoveries of the Distant Past**

Naruto tried to be optimistic. He really tried to do his best to keep Sakura's attention as he pointed out various shops and places that they had been to together as Team Seven, but when they passed the Yamanaka Flower Shop for the third time, Naruto wearily called it a lingerie store for old women that his grandmother loved to frequent, and upon receiving another indifferent nod from Sakura, he had had enough.

"Sakura-chan, I don't think this is working," Naruto commented, pausing just outside of the Yamanaka Flower Shop, snapping Sakura out of her private thoughts.

"Yes, a lingerie shop, I heard you," she said absently, and Naruto simply shook his head, pointing her attention to the huge variety of flowers that filled out of the shop onto the sidewalk in front of it. Sakura felt her cheeks grow hot with embarrassment and readied an apology for him when he cut her off.

"No, don't worry about it. Maybe Kakashi-sensei was right; the excitement you've had today might've been too much already-"

"What does he know about what I can handle anyway?" she snapped at the mention of him, and Naruto held up his hands defensively.

"I'm not picking sides, but you do seem a little out of it, Sakura-chan," he said calmly. "I really don't want to do this if it isn't helping you any. And the entire time you've been with me, you haven't had any flashbacks or anything. I'm really not sure what else I'm supposed to do." Sakura felt even worse at his words, lowering her head in shame.

"I know you're trying your best, Naruto, and I'm really sorry that I haven't been keeping my end of things by staying engaged to what's going on," she whispered. "It's just that…UGH, he's so infuriating! I basically spilled my heart out to him, and he brushed me off…"

"I'm sure he's hurting just as much as you are," Naruto offered uncertainly. "It took him a long while to recover from your disappearance, and to have you suddenly back into his life must really be shocking for him." He felt a small smile spread on his face. "Even I can't believe that you're back here in Konoha; you were…-are one of my best friends, Sakura-chan. To think that you had died…Sasuke and I were devastated, but Kakashi-sensei must've had it a thousand times worse. Maybe he needs a lot more time than you do to figure things out." Naruto bit his lip, thinking he had gone too far, but Sakura slowly absorbed his words and finally nodded her head in agreement.

"You're right, Naruto, you're absolutely right," she stated. "It was wrong of me to keep pushing him to accept my reappearance. I guess I don't understand the situation as much as I thought I did." In a wave of spontaneity, she engulfed Naruto in a huge hug, tightening her embrace. "Thank you, Naruto. I probably would have been wallowing all day if you hadn't knocked some sense into me." She grinned as she looked up into Naruto's face, and when she saw his blue eyes soften at her, a sudden wave of familiar dizziness hit her, and Naruto, recognizing the expression on her face, carefully held her steady as she began to waver on her feet.

* * *

_  
"So that's it, then!" Naruto glared at her as she struggled for the words that would not come to her defense. Naruto angrily paced in his living room as Sakura sat on his couch, looking guiltily at her shaking hands clasped tightly together on her lap. "He's been gone for years, Sakura! Now that he comes back, you're so quick to leave me-"_

_"No, you're wrong about that, Naruto!" she cried out, jumping up from the couch to face him. He paused in his steps. "It's just…it's been so long since he's been back, and he's seriously injured from his fight with Itachi. I just want to stay awhile in the hospital to be there when he wakes up, and I've just got to come up with a way to convince to Hokage-sama to pardon him-"_

_"What about me?" The tremble in Naruto's voice was obvious as he kept his head bowed low. "I've been here for you all this time, Sakura. We've been together since…since he's left, and I'm still here for you." He slowly lifted his blue eyes, slightly brilliant with unwanted tears, to meet her wide-eyed gaze, and quietly, he approached her, taking her hands into his as he reached her. "I love you, Sakura-chan. Ever since we've been little, I've always loved you, and being assigned to Team 7 with you years ago only gave me an even better opportunity to fall deeper in love with you. You're so much like me, you know?" A sad smile crept its way to his lips. "You always tried your hardest, and yet…it was frustrating to always have people remind you of your helplessness, right?" Naruto knew he hit a soft spot when she lowered her head, tears fighting to break free. "We're the same, Sakura. We understand one another. He can't give that to you, but I can."_

_"Why are you saying all this?" she fired out, breaking away from him. "Are you having fun pointing out my mistakes-"_

_"No, you know I wouldn't do that to you." He reached for her hand again. "I'm saying that we're happy, right? There's always been a part of you that loved Sasuke, and I know that I can never ever take over for him. He was your first love, and those are always the toughest to get over. But he can never understand you, Sakura. He can never understand how deeply you've felt for him, nor does he completely understand that all those times you've tried to look out for him, you only did so because you loved him."_

_"Naruto, stop-"_

_"Sakura, he's not meant for you!" The words hit her like a block of cold ice running down her spine, and she flinched as she pulled away from him again._

_"…He needs me," she whispered._

_"I need you," Naruto shot back, anger drifting into his tone. "Don't I mean anything to you? Do you know what the hell you're putting me through? I've always been second to Sasuke in everything, especially when it came to you. Now that you're with me, do you honestly think I'm going to let you waltz back to him without putting up a fight?" Her shoulders shook as Naruto grabbed desperately onto her. "Do you love me, Sakura?"_

_"Of course I do!" she replied automatically, looking up to stare into his blue eyes. "I love you more than you know. I've told you thousands of times before-"_

_"Then marry me." Sakura paused in her struggling to gawk at him as her jaw dropped down in complete shock._

_"Naruto…"_

_"Marry me, Sakura." His tone was that of a desperate plea though his face was impassive, showing little of the tension he was feeling throughout his entire body. "I love you, and you love me, and it's the only next logical step, isn't it? We've been together for years, and this is something that I wanted to go through only with you."_

_"…I…" All she could hear was her heart pounding painfully in her chest, screaming out that she didn't deserve such a man in her life, that she was lower than the lowest of scum, and above all, that if she married him, she would never be fully happy unless she could give her all to him. As much as she wished things were different, Naruto just wasn't that person, especially now with Sasuke's return. She had to try things out with Sasuke before she could go devote her life to Naruto, and as much as it pained her to realize this, it was tougher still to let the man who had supported since they had been children know of her decision. She couldn't live life through the endless thoughts of 'what if…' and now that Sasuke was back, she knew she couldn't let her chance slip away from her. _

_Even if it meant letting Naruto go._

_Naruto__ knew her more than she realized when he took one look into her eyes to know what her mind had made up. Lifelessly, he let his arms drop to his side as he turned and stepped away from her._

_"You don't have to say anything," he whispered bitterly, his back turned toward her. "I know what you have to do. Just go now…before I can't let you." Sakura inhaled sharply at what was happening, and as a natural reflex, she moved toward him, but paused when he moved away from her as though she would poison him with her touch. "Don't make it harder than it has to be!" he growled through clenched teeth. "Just leave!"_

_"Naruto…" She backed away from him and headed out of the living room toward the door. She took one final look back at him, and by the shaking of his figure, knew that he was trying desperately to hold back his emotions. "Thank you." That one sincere phrase from Sakura was enough to break his heart, but he kept himself composed as she slowly opened the door and walked out of his apartment._

_Seconds later, Sakura heard a faint anguished cry accompanied by the sound of breaking glass hitting the front door. Immediately, she sprinted away to the hospital, her tears blinding her gaze as she ran._

_

* * *

_  
Sakura opened her eyes only to discover a pair of familiar blue ones staring down at her in concern, and she shrieked, flying as far away from Naruto as possible.

"Sakura-chan, what's wrong?" he asked hurriedly, reaching for her, but she swatted his hands away.

"How can you ask me that when I've done such horrible things to you!" she blurted out, unaware of the crowd that was gathering outside of the Yamanaka Flower Shop. "How can you still be so kind to me when all I've done is hurt you? Especially…especially…"

Recovering from her rather shocking reaction, Naruto realized immediately which memory had been recovered when she refused to even look at him, guilt heavily playing upon her features. "Hey, Sakura, that was years ago," Naruto commented, trying to make light of the situation, though the pain of the repressed memory of their breakup was suddenly rubbed raw at the mention of it. The way Naruto had learned to deal with it was to forget about their relationship altogether, resorting back to putting Sakura on a pedestal where he could never ever reach her, wondering how in the world he had been so lucky to have been with her for so long. There was no way he could ever bring himself to hate Sakura even after all that had surpassed between them, and in the end, he had blamed himself for not being enough for her. The pain of his inadequacy in their relationship resurfaced as he stared at the broken woman in front of him. Once again, he wasn't enough to comfort her or bring her happiness.

"It's just…I didn't expect to find out that I was such a horrible person!" she whispered, her tone breaking Naruto's heart once more. As much as he wanted to forget about their relationship, Sakura had always been his very first love, and like he had told her in the past, those were always the hardest to get over.

"C'mon, Sakura, let's go somewhere else," he said, putting his arm protectively over her shoulders as he them away from the prying eyes of the curious onlookers. He was barely able to bring her to the alleyway next to the flower shop before she started to sob again.

"What the hell was I, Naruto?" she begged him to answer. "First I find out that I'd been engaged to my SENSEI, and before then, Sasuke-kun, and now…you…? What the hell, was I just some sort of Team Seven whore!"

"Whoa, Sakura, calm down-"

"Honestly, how can one girl go around through all of her guy friends like that?" Her cheeks were blotched and puffy from humiliation and she refused to look up at him. "What kind of person was I? Looking back at this girl I used to be, I just can't understand how I could have been so selfish and so…just so horrible."

"Hey, c'mon Sakura, stop," Naruto pleaded, not sure how to handle anything like this. The last time he had ever had to deal with her being this hysterical was when Sasuke had disappeared for good without anyone knowing of where he had gone to. But he had never ever heard her bash herself this much. She had always been the type of girl to come off as someone who was confident in herself, and even when they had been dating, she was extremely reluctant to show her vulnerability to him. They had been reaching that point in their relationship when Sakura was finally allowing herself to turn to him whenever she needed help, but Sasuke's return had simply ruined that. Naruto just couldn't take seeing his Sakura-chan this broken, and doing the only thing he could think of, he embraced her.

Sakura froze momentarily as soon as he had her, but she instantly struggled, feeling unworthy of such an act of kindness, especially with all that crap she knew she had to have put him through. Naruto wouldn't even budge an inch, and Sakura finally looked up at him, her face crinkled and messy as she recognized that same familiar expression he had always given her, she was sure, from days past. "Why are you so kind to me still, Naruto? I don't deserve any of it."

"I don't honestly know," Naruto answered truthfully. "You did treat me like crap." Sakura paused at the brutal honesty he was displaying, and when he smirked at her, she couldn't help but crack a smile back at him.

"I didn't expect you to agree with me."

"I'm stupidly honest." Naruto was fully grinning now, relieved that she calmed down even for a little bit. "Look, it's mid-afternoon, but you've already been through so much today, so why don't I take you back to your home? You should rest up so that by tomorrow, you can continue your progress-"

"I don't want to go home." Sakura crossed her arms defiantly as she turned her gaze outward toward the bustling street. "I don't want to see Kazuki right now, nor do I want to be alone with him in that house. I really don't know what's going on with him, but he's just not acting like himself. He's been so weird ever since we arrived in Konoha."

"I really don't trust the guy," Naruto stated, trying not to sneer at the thought of him. "I get a really bad vibe around him, so I guess I can understand why you wouldn't want to be around him right now."

"He really wasn't like this before." Sakura frowned as she thought back to her fiancé, and how different he was when they were back home in the Hidden Cloud Village. "He's really a very kind and caring man that it makes no sense to me why he's so suspicious of everything. Now, it seems he's always constantly watching his back for something to attack him." She shook her head as if to clear him from her thoughts before she looked back at Naruto. "If you really wouldn't mind, could we take that little tour around Konoha again? I was…slightly distracted the last time." Naruto grinned widely and nodded, and together they walked out of the alleyway, nearly running into a person who let out a very meek shriek before she was able to get out of the way just in time to avoid a collision.

"I'm really sorry!" Sakura let out to a very shy girl who was already bowing her head in apology even before Sakura had uttered a word.

"Hinata!" Naruto greeted, and the girl immediately straightened up, her cheeks aflame as she stared at her boyfriend. Even after all this time, he still was able to make her blush furiously beyond her control, and her eyes were so focused on him that she barely registered that Haruno Sakura was standing next to him, staring at her as if she had absolutely no idea who she was. However, when Naruto placed his hand Sakura's shoulder, Hinata felt her jaw drop at the sight of her, and for a moment, she felt her heart stop, especially when she silently observed how Naruto's face lit up in a way that she hadn't seen in years. She then felt her jaw drop even further when she realized that Sakura wasn't dead.

"Sakura, this is Hyuuga Hinata," Naruto introduced, and Sakura bowed respectfully, keeping a polite smile on her face, easily concealing all the despair that had been written on there just a few minutes before.

"I-I-I thought that you were-"

"She's been alive this whole time," Naruto immediately answered. "To keep things short, she's lost her memory of Konoha, so that's why I've had to reintroduce you to her."

"It's nice to meet you, Hyuuga-san," Sakura greeted, and Hinata merely bowed back in response, noting with a sinking feeling that time had only been very good to Sakura in terms of physical looks. '_Naruto__-kun is already charmed by her!'_ Hinata thought to herself, feeling her old self-esteem issues arising for the first time in years. _'It's only natural to feel this way,' _she thought quickly to herself, trying not to panic. _'Anyone would feel uncomfortable seeing their boyfriend hanging out with an ex-'_

"Is there something wrong, Hinata?" Naruto was staring at her blankly, and she shook her head vigorously.

"No, I'm fine!" she answered in a high squeak before she cleared her throat and repeated her words in a much normal tone. "I was just looking for you because you told me to meet you at Ichiraku today-"

"Oh!" Naruto slapped his hand against his forehead. "I forgot that we had plans-"

Hinata wanted to cry. _'Oh no, it's already starting!'_

"-after all the excitement yesterday and today with Sakura's return, things have just been slipping out of my mind." He chuckled. "We may have to postpone today's date because I've got to reacquaint Sakura with all the familiar places and people-"

"Hinata!" The outburst made both Naruto and Hinata jump as they stared at Sakura in surprise. "I remember you! Well, you appeared for a brief second in one of the memories that I've recovered. I saw you with Naruto…" Her voice trailed off as she looked back and forth between the two. "You two were dating weren't you?"

"We still are," Hinata said, finding her voice, and Sakura smiled in excitement as Naruto blushed a little bit.

"Well, then don't let me keep you from hanging out together!" Sakura was quick to say, but Naruto shook his head.

"I said I'd help you, and I'm not one to go back on my words," he insisted before he turned to Hinata. "You don't mind, do you Hinata?"

Hinata forced a smile onto her face. _'Of course I mind!'_ "No, I understand-"

"Look, we're right next to the Yamanaka Flower Shop so I'll just drop by to see if I can find Ino," Sakura insisted. "I don't want to keep you from enjoying your normal, everyday life just because I'm here-"

"But that's the whole point," Naruto shot back. "I never thought I'd see you again, but here you are…" Naruto's bottom lip trembled as he tried to keep his emotions in check, which was becoming a very hard thing to do with each passing second. "Now that you're back, I almost feel like I don't want to let you out of my sight in case this is some sort of messed up dream…"

"Naruto…" Sakura had no idea what else to say as she looked at him as though for the first time, trying desperately to comprehend the extent of the pain her sudden appearance in Konoha was causing those to whom she had been closest to. It was hitting her with every encounter that she threatened the closure that each one of them had struggled to deal with when they thought she had died in combat. Did she really have a right to make them to face such emotional trials again just so she could discover her past, a past that seemed to open up only more wounds the more she delved into it?

"I'd like to show her around," a voice called out to the trio, and they all spun around to the source of the voice. Sakura narrowed her eyes before she made to flee in the opposite direction. "Let me do this one thing for you. _Please, Sakura._" She paused mid-step as he whispered her name, and almost as if against her own will, she turned and stared back at Sasuke.

* * *

**TBC…**


End file.
